wir retteten

Why we ask about the obstacle and the first step

There is a trap almost everyone knows: you speak a wish out loud, someone nods, maybe it even earns a few hearts. And somehow that good feeling is enough. The wish already feels half done, although nothing has happened yet.

That is why it does not stop at the wish here. We ask for two things a wish does not normally have. First: what is actually in the way? That is different for everyone. Sometimes something bigger than yourself. Sometimes the fear of looking ridiculous. Your own pride. Habit. The feeling that you, of all people, do not matter. Or simply a daily life in which it is never the right moment. Whoever names their obstacle takes it seriously, and often it already shrinks a little in the naming. And second: what is the smallest step that works anyway? A voice message. A pile of leaves left where it is. Going there once and listening. Whoever has written that step down once knows, from then on, what concretely to do.

There is no more theory behind it. But no less either.

So: what stands in your way?

Why “we”?

Every card on this wall speaks as an I. The we comes later, and only in one place: when a first step has been taken. Then “I’m saving” becomes “we saved”. Not because we helped, but because every completed rescue becomes part of something larger: the growing collection of things that were saved because someone started by saying them out loud. The deed is yours. The sentence belongs to all of us.

The rules

There are only three.

Anything that matters to you can be saved: places, relationships, things, living beings, yourself included. With one exception: nobody here saves anything “from” other people or groups. Threats may be conditions, never persons.

Every contribution is read by people before it appears on the wall. Not to censor, but so this wall remains a place where the vulnerable things can be written down too.

And if a contribution does not appear? That does not necessarily mean something was wrong. Sometimes the first step has simply turned out too big. Then it helps to suggest a smaller one next time, one that can really be done.

And: the small counts here just as much as the big. The corner kiosk stands as an equal next to the climate, the hedgehogs next to the friendship. Whoever takes the small seriously will one day dare the big. Saving is a matter of practice.

Who is behind this

My name is Robert Rettig. For a living I look at the earth from above. I work with satellite data and turn images from orbit into answers someone can actually use. From seven hundred kilometres up you see a surprising amount. What you never see is what to do.

This wall is the other end of the same question. Nothing here can be measured. What stands here is what someone calls, builds or says out loud on a Monday. To me the two belong together: the wide view that shows what is, and the small step that changes something.

What else I do is over on robertrettig.de. This wall does not need it. It belongs to the lines, not to me. What would yours say?

What this should become

Honestly: the wall is only the beginning, and most of what we have in mind does not exist yet.

Here is the plan. Whoever leaves an email with their contribution gets exactly one question from us after two weeks: how did your first step go? That is not a check-up, more of a friendly knock on the door. Sometimes that alone is enough to really begin.

Later we would like to bring people together who want to save the same thing. The two from the same town who both mean the same stream, without knowing of each other. You cannot plan such encounters, but you can build a wall where they happen.

And at some point there should be a free toolkit, so schools, clubs and neighbourhoods can put up a wall of their own. Paper, pen, a real wall. The idea is borrowed and proven: the best participatory projects are the ones you are allowed to copy.

Whether all of that happens depends on what happens here. Where do we begin?