Greetings Pogue,

I am still travelling around Iceland, as you know and very much enjoying the land. If I said there is so much that is different, in a good way, I wouldn’t be wrong. It’s not so much the land although it has a rugged beauty with hot springs and water clearer than I’ve seen anywhere. It’s not the continuous daylight hours with no darkness at this time of year.

It’s the general vibe of the whole place. The ethos if you like. Things are just different from home. Let me give you some examples. The police, who go unarmed, are thought of as the most liked police force in the world and the crime rate may be the lowest which, as you can imagine, immediately creates a feeling of safety when one is out and about.

Equality, amongst men and women, differing genders, differing people and religions, young and old, exists. Whilst I’m sure it is not yet 100% it certainly is well on the way to being so. People are just accepted and expect to be.

Nature is respected. I stood in a roadside rest area yesterday and read a presentation on Icelands electrical supply, the highest per head of any population in the world, all coming from clean energy, and the fact that the electrical companies cannot build pylons above ground to transport the power. All cables must be buried. That said there are a few power lines above ground but these are certainly the exception. The landscape is largely unspoiled.

When I have walked, the paths are often clearly marked with persistent request not to walk off the path for fear of damaging the fauna. It’s there to be enjoyed and thrive alongside us.

All the towns and villages I have visited are clean and litter free even if some of the houses could do with a lick of paint.

So it has much going for it and I wonder why, in certain other places, a different, higher sort of vibe can be achieved. Where the things that make the world an ugly place such as discrimination and the need to revert to violence as a means of authority are absent. It is little wonder that Iceland rates amongst the happiest places on earth to live.

The question I muse this morning is how do we manage this elsewhere? What must be done to bring a better vibe to other countries. The only answer I find I can rest on is that it starts with one person. One person making a positive effort to except others regardless of their preferences and to do so with respect. All these things begin with one person or one group of like minded people. People who live at a higher vibe making positive decisions to think and behave in certain ways. And these ways may initially be foreign especially if you’ve lived all your life in another world. It may be a matter of training our minds and addressing our habits. One step at a time to allow changes to settle in. But it’s doable with a little determination. A better world is out there, as proven by a road trip around Iceland and they are not there yet.

So, today, one more step and a little practice. If you need a little encouragement know that you are becoming a better person with every step taken and you are raising your own vibration which is good.

Better day, better world?

Yours, enjoying my equality,

Wic

P.S I am imagining that if Icelanders were offered the opportunity to own arms, as part of their constitutional rights, there would be no more firearms in Iceland at the end of the week.