Tomorrow's Child

Every time I am working with students, entrepreneurs, and organizations around sustainability, every time I think about the world my son grows up in, the poem Tomorrow's Child comes to my mind. Tomorrow's Child is a poem that was written by Interface staff member Glenn Thomas at the beginning of Interface's sustainability journey in 1996, and Ray Anderson, the founder of Interface, often ended his presentations by reciting this poem. The poem is a powerful call to deeply care for and act for the benefit of Mother Earth so that future generations can have a good life in symbiosis with life-giving nature. ACT TOGETHER TO FLOURISH

Tomorrow's Child

Without a name; an unseen face
and knowing not your time nor place,
Tomorrow's Child, though yet unborn
I met you first last Tuesday morn.

A wise friend introduced us two,
and through his shining point of view
I saw a day that you would see;
a day for you, but not for me.

Knowing you has changed my thinking
for I never had an inkling
That perhaps the things I do
might someday, somehow, threaten you.

Tomorrow's Child, my daughter/son
I'm afraid I've just begun
To think of you and of your good,
though always having known I should.

Begin I will to weigh the cost
of what I squander; what is lost
If ever I forget that you
will someday come to live here too.

© Glenn C. Thomas 1996