Earth and her lesson

Once upon a time in a galaxy far away, there used to be a pretty bluish-green planet called Earth. She had a fluffy crown made of clouds and bushy hair made of trees. Her body was the most amazing shade of blue made of water. She had all the flowers for dresses and had ornaments of all kinds of birds and animals and fishes that were prettier than one’s imagination. She had an unfulfilled wish though; she wanted to sleep. As odd as it seems, she hadn’t slept once in all her existence because she was worried that her dresses and ornaments might be destroyed. And it was only logical. Because who wouldn’t be worried if they had dresses that smelled divine and ornaments that could sign and talk to them. Beautiful as she was, she was never vain. In fact, her heart had as much love as her body held her beauty. So one day, when visitors who called themselves humans arrived from far away land and asked her if they could stay with her she received them with an open embrace.

The humans were marvelous. They created wonders by using their science, arts, and music. They loved Earth as much as she loved them and created endless sermons just to describe her beauty. Not just Earth, they fell in love with every tree that made her hair, every drop of water that made her body, every flower that made her dress, and every ornament that she had. In fact, they loved her so much they worshipped every part of her body. So when they asked for a little bit of her hair, a little bit of her body, and a few her dresses and ornaments for themselves, she gave it to them. Her generosity made humans love her even more and they thanked her endlessly. And because the humans were so intelligent and loved her so much, she asked them to take care of her and her pretty dresses and ornaments, and then she went into a long, much-needed sleep.

When she woke up after sleeping for decades and looked at herself, she couldn’t quite believe that what she saw was truly her. Her fluffy white crown had somehow turned dirty and contained such poisonous gas that she couldn’t breathe properly. Her body wasn’t blue and fresh like it used to be. Instead, it contained so much material called plastic that she couldn’t get rid of no matter how much she tried. Her hair was not long and bushy anymore, it was small and uncared for. Someone had replaced her pretty flowery dress with something concrete that stretched unevenly in her body. And so many of her beautiful ornaments were missing! When she completed taking in her appearance, she was so heartbroken that she started crying.

When the birds and animals that were her ornaments heard Earth cry, they were relieved that she had finally woken up and came rushing to her so that they could hold her. Then they told her what exactly had happened when she slept. How humans had grown so large in number and how they had cut so much of her hair for themselves and thrown so much of their waste into their body. They told her how they had taken control of birth, life, death, and reproduction of so many plants and animals just to fulfill their desire. They also told her that the humans had become so much focused on themselves that they didn’t even care for fellow humankind anymore!

The birds and animals and flowers advised her to send the humans back to wherever they had come from. But despite everything humans had done to her when she was asleep, she loved them dearly. So she told the birds and animals that she didn’t want the humans to leave her; he just wanted them to realize what they had done to her was wrong and that their actions would eventually harm themselves if they weren’t corrected timely. And thus, the discussion on how to make humans realize their mistake began.

The ocean that made her body said, “I’ll return all the trash they’ve thrown in me back to the seashore! They certainly won’t do it again after they see the trash on the beach that they love so much.” Everyone agreed to the idea. So the ocean returned all the trash that the humans had thrown back to their doorsteps. But the humans merely threw the trash back to the ocean and continued their lives. When the idea presented by the ocean failed, the mountain proposed, “I’ll melt all the snow and raise the ocean level.” So he melted away all the snow and the ice. But the rising ocean level didn’t pose any threat to the humans who made the rules and policies for human action. So humans once again continued their behavior.

Some of the birds and animals grew very angry with humans. So they declared, “We have been very poorly treated by humans. We will go deep into the remaining forests and mountains and not appear to the humans again!”  So the humans never saw several exotic birds and animals again. But they were content to use their new gadgets and so didn’t care about the absence of birds and animals in the city.

When Earth made herself too warm, the humans simply invented A.C. and remained in their homes. When she became too cold, they invented the heater and used them. When she simply didn’t give them her gift of production, the rich humans took the share of poor ones leaving them to starve. Earth saw the indifference in that action of the rich famous and was devastated. The plants and animals did not know how to console her anymore. When everyone else fell out of ideas, a wise owl that was looking quietly at everything came forward and said, “The humans who make rules for human actions don’t care for the wellbeing of the earth. They don’t even care about the poor being of their own kind. So we need to do something that will make the rich ones who are in the position are affected.” Everyone in the meeting agreed but once again didn’t have any idea on how to do it.

At this, the smallest one at the meeting came forward and spoke, “I’m from the tribe of the virus. My name is Corona. I haven’t affected many humans so they don’t know much about me yet. I can affect everyone equally and people won’t get out of the house or have large gatherings if they want to avoid me. This will reduce the waste they produce from their factories, hotels, and vehicles. I will only be harsh to those who don’t care about themselves and go out. Let me go earth, you have been kind to all of us and I want to repay your kindness.” Everyone agreed. So Earth let him go.

The effect of Corona started to be seen in many countries. As he had said, Corona infected many influential humans from princes to prime ministers to players. The countries that did not listen to the scientists and continued to have large gatherings soon faced the consequences of their mistakes. Corona infected so many of their population forcing for the lockdown that he even threatened to collapse the economy of those countries. Corona claimed the lives of many to make people realize the gravity of the situation and stay at home.

But amidst the lockdown, humans began to see the change in their surroundings. The clouds that made Earth’s crown were white and fluffy and beautiful once again because the dust in the city had settled. People started seeing so many birds, animals, and flowers began to see nature’s beauty once again. They got mesmerized and fell in love with Earth once more. In caring for fellow humans during the pandemic, they realized that true happiness came from caring for one another. Even the selfish and grumpy people saw their mistake once they themselves fell sick and had to rely on others for their recovery.

All the humans realized that the true responsibility of a sensible being lay in caring and nurturing all other beings and living in harmony; not in being selfish and caring only for oneself. They once again felt gratitude for the life that they had got with the help of Earth. They also realized how they had diminished the beauty and greatness of Earth by being a slave to their petty and never-ending desires. So they promised to take care of each other and of Earth.

At this, Earth became very happy and called the virus back from human civilization. The humans became healthy once again and started to live in peace and harmony.