The nightmare
The little girl sat on her grandpa’s lap. The whir from above lifted her hair gently as the machine pumped in the breathable air, perfectly adequate for low to medium intensity exertion. Her grandpa pushed forward a drink and her nutrition tablets and smiled at her. She grimaced as she chewed the salty tablets. She was determined to grow. As the light dimmed, the computer cast night images onto the ceiling—a blue-black background strewn with twinkling stars. It was lovely, she decided. In the morning, the computer would project light into the room and the stars would disappear. Oftentimes, her grandpa would show digital images to her of the place that his own father had lived in as a child. It had beautiful, lush, green forests and wetlands teeming with mysterious creatures—places where humans walked right out under the big sun, air blowing past their cheeks without danger. They entered in and out of buildings, coming out with packages in their arms. It was filled with people, animals, forests, rushing streams, and a blue sky hung with clouds.
The images passed before her. Some people spoke of a land called heaven. This must be that place. The place where water simply pours from the sky, making green things grow. The little girl remembered reading about the smell of rain. She tried to imagine such a smell. The digital images flashed upon children playing outside with real, soft grass under their feet. The girl thought of the scratchy turf in her own playroom. People ate foods; real foods that not only made you grow but had a million different tastes. She could not imagine such tastes, but she could tell that people there enjoyed their food.
As she watched the images, she asked, “Grandpa, did this place really exist?” He replied, “Oh yes. This land existed all right; it existed for millions of years. The place you see on the screen is the same place we live now. But things changed. The land was broken up into nations and different religions, and they were at odds with each other. They each wanted more and believed their religion to be the only right one. They warred with each other over the earth’s resources and their ideologies and destroyed the planet. They fought over it, rather than taking care of it. They wastefully plundered the natural resources without regard to the affect of their lifestyles on the planet. That is why we live here, safe from the radiation and the toxic chemicals.” “Those people who lived there were lucky. They lived right in paradise.” “Yes, my dear. Though they are long gone, I feel angry at them for destroying our future irreversibly. It would have been so easy to preserve the paradise they were blessed with for their future generations. All they had to do was care,” Grandpa replied sadly.
The dream
She was sitting on her grandpa’s lap in the garden. It was a beautiful day, the sun peeking out behind the clouds in a majestic sky. Over the bubbling of the fountain nearby, she heard the scrabble and call of quail in the distance. The little girl sat amid the colorful flowers and the green plants, unaware that she lived in paradise, for this is what she had always known. Grandpa interrupted the silence when he said, “Well, dear, are you ready to load up the boat and do some fishing?” The little girl looked out over the lake and squinted her eyes. “Grandpa, I learned in school some very sad things.” “What did you learn that would make you so sad?” “I learned about the wars between people. That people here were once killing and hurting each other and that some people had nothing to eat. That people owned each other and hurt each other. I heard about bad things happening to little girls. People consumed the world’s resources without regard for the future of our planet or their future generations. It was a scary story and my friend said that it was true. Was it really true, Grandpa, that people did all those terrible things?” The little girl looked up at her grandpa with tears in her eyes.
Her grandpa took a deep breath and looked deep in her eyes. “I’m sorry to say, honey, that it is true. Things were very different before the twenty-second century. In the twenty-first century, the earth was made up of a combination of advanced people, who would eventually evolve into the people you and I know today and barbaric tyrants who led people in hate and greed to hurt and use others and damage our planet. In fact, we came very close to losing everything we have today. But that changed. Our forefathers and mothers stood up to the tyranny and hatred. They formed the world organization for peace amongst mankind that we have today. Now we all work together to make sure everybody has freedom and happiness. We take care of our planet and share its beauty. With the help of our Creator, decent people stood up and simply did the right thing and we have them to thank for this beautiful day and all the fish we will catch today.” The little girl felt better. The grandpa dusted off his pants and took her hand as they headed down to the dock at the edge of their garden.
One of these stories will someday be true. It is up to us to envision which one we prefer and formulate that into a goal for our planet. The problem is that to go the direction of devastation and loss, all we have to do is do nothing and stay the present course. To improve our condition and leave a barbaric and destructive path behind us, we must take an exit and build a different kind of road. I truly believe that together, we can definitely accomplish the dream of a wonderful world.
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