Congratulations, Elinor Ostrom!

I just read that Elinor Ostrom was awarded the nobel prize in economics. And I started crying. In desperation. Don't ask me why, well do ask me why, because I would want to know. I adored her. I still do. She is the figurehead of good science in service of humanity and the search for truth, while at the same time she is friendly and cordial like any us-american grandmother, giving out praise and supportive critique like chocolate cookies.

I adore her.

Her winning the nobel prize shakes the floor on which my disappointment with academia, science, and politics rests.

She did it. She did the unbelievable act of conducting decades and decades of thorough world class science with a political stance for empowerment and community based governance WITHOUT loosing her self, her humbleness, her helpful nature, her humanity. How did she do that? How?

The answer that comes to mind is patience and openness. I can only assume that she did what she did with all her heart in each and every second of doing it. I can only assume that she never lost the will to learn, learn about others' thoughts and ideas, new fields of science, new approaches, old approaches.

I don't crave a nobel prize.

I crave a part in changing the world to become a better place. I crave the peace of being content with where I am, without losing the desire to make the next step, without losing the desire to find the one thing in life in which I can be truly excellent.

Congratulations, Elinor Ostrom! You deserve every bit of the recognition that comes with winning the prize. And you deserve my adoration, because your career is inspiration, aspiration and encouragement. You did your part in saving this world.

And congratulations, nobel prize comittee, on making a bold decision like this.

May it shatter the power that economics holds over politics!