Man's Story

Upon a little planet floating through a massive space live a species who call themselves Mankind. They are lost in a sea of bland empty words, spoken, fading into the wind. Separate from one another; unplugged from the collective synapse, each soul as a lone entity, they swim through a hollow whirlpool- and call it: life? Life as they know it- is that really life at all? Or is there something omnipresent, now dormant, lying in the cave of each conscious, alll of theirs- that defies all of their modern technology?


Men draw lines in the sand, calling this land "mine" and that "yours", using patriotism and faith as reasons for hate and violence. At their hands Mother Earth lies drawn and quartered- the shards simply still- waiting for the vultures to approach and devour her. They not only prepare the sacrificial feast, they are also the birds of prey who will come to dine on what little is left. Are they so apathetic they cannot care that, when she is gone, they too will cease to be? Or are they somehow blinded by ignorance of their full potential, which relies on her?

 

A long time ago, so long that most cannot remember, their ancestors knew that the moon and stars could be used as guides. Those ancestors knew of a natural order, and were careful not to alter or disrupt it, realizing that they, too, were a part of the earth. They lived in symbiosis with all around them, in those ages past. They lived not on the planet, but with it- a divine union, upon their creation.

 

Slowly, after many many moons, the people desired more. They discovered that they could pillage their Mother and use her parts to build, to expand, to live a more comfortable way. However, it started to come at a price. A few noticed. They spoke up... It was too late. Their voices echoed through the halls of the new world, simply taking up space, affecting no one, nothing. Blinded by the desire to move faster, have bigger homes, consume larger quantities of resources, the majority of the people began the descent into a path toward their own destruction.

 

The water become dirty, the air full of the smoke from their factories. Men killed off species of animal and plant that were an integral part of the natural order of things. These losses weighed heavy upon them all, but they did not see it. They did not care to think of their children's chidren, and did not realize that the most important loss was of their ability to see things as they were- connected, each part of Earth and of their universe a part of one intricate web. Stubbornly, the people kept building and forgot that their foundation was being destroyed underneath the weight of the structure they were creating...

 

As Man has devolved, he has proclaimed it to be, instead, evolution. He believes himself to be far superior to those ancient ancestors so long ago, because he does not know now what is truly important. The foundation is cracking beneath him, causing tremor after tremor, but Man keeps saying he's a better architect than God himself. When all of Man's efforts fall down like a haphazard house of flimsy playing cards, will God step in and pick up the pieces? Or will the creator simply let them lay as they have fallen? Is this really what he made them for? Man knew once, why he was made. That was forgotten, along with everything else of any import. Perhaps Mankind deserves his fate. And yet... perhaps he can find some way to save himself... perhaps? The question is, will he even try?

Reviews

[Tony]

Will he indeed? This is a very good question!
.........did not realize the most important loss was of their ability to see things as they were, connected....
How disastrous is it for a carbon based life form to discover he likes to own things?
Very, and this story spells it out quite clearly.
We are the keepers of the Earth and look at how horribly we are doing in our gardens and families.
Shame on us.
Sharp you are..... Constance, Great Story.

[A.Kalashy]

Defenitly a very interesting Idea.
Hope you develope it more.
looking forward for next chapters.

[Silent Kim aka mizmetap..]

Oh God you opened some doors here. Man is trying to wipe out the exsistance of God by disallowing it from school where children are learning right from wrong. They are exploring Mars for an alternative when they have bleed this planet dry. And God help us if they find oil on Mars and start stransporting it to earth. Hell we Might be invaded by martians, hidden in the particales of their oil. You expressed these sentiments so well and it should be circulated for the world to read maybe somebody will learn something. Very good write.

[Ms. Spriggs]

Your work poses good and thoughtful questions, and your voice is powerful in its discussion of mankind. The second paragraph stands out as particularly powerful.

And oh what a tangled web we weave. Are we doing any better or worse? Maybe. I don't know. I think sometimes the way we punish and reward ourselves is funny. We constantly feel that we are apart from "nature" or "mother earth," and instead are keepers of it. But I tend to think nature created us, and we ourselves and whatever we do or think is "natural" in its own way. We don't own anything, in fact we do things which allow nature to destroy us.

And when has "nature," the one apart from us, ever been nice? There are storms, floods, mother animals eating their young, abandoning them. Animals dying all over the place, plants dying all over the place. Lions draw territories too. The law of natural selection is brutal. Really, we are trying to reverse the rules of natural selection by allowing people to live, in fact now all sorts of "natural strengths" have been lost because of medicine, our "niceness" has essentially bitten us in the butt.

Basically, I'm not sure what the moral of the story is. But who is to say ancient people were ethically any better? They may not have scorched the earth but they killed and murdered. Some tribal people today have some really tough practices.

I'm not disagreeing with the fact that we are ruining our resources, or that by this light we are doing any good today. But my distrust comes in our view of "nature" and in what position we put ourselves against it.
Sorry if this sounds offensive on my part, just offering my opinion, feel free to oppose. I love discussion like this.

[Ujjwal Ankur]

Now that is beautifully written.
"Men draw lines in the sand, calling this land "mine" and that "yours", using patriotism and faith as reasons for hate and violence" is just so beautiful and apt.

You know, mankind is the best and the worst thing that has ever happened to the earth. Best because of all that evolutionary crap and all, wisdom, power of thought, yada yada. And worst because it's one experiment of the nature gone out of control. Somewhere back in the time line we assumed that everything that is here, was made for us. That assumption has caused the earth more harm than all the meteors put together.

And to think that there are some people who are more concerned about our world being abruptly ended by a meteor some fine day, is the height of complacency.

For me, it would be more pleasant end for the earth than the slow decay process that man has started.

[Jason]

Well...this is truly a question for the age's...this was indeed terrific and inquisitive!
great great job!
j

[Pakino]

Amazing! I liked everything in the story. Simple, short, easy to understand, yet it was deep. I liked the religious connection near the end. Really good!!!!!!

[Solst Rapture]

Constance,
thank you for writing and submitting this. It is just the kind of heartfelt, controversial inquiry that I was hoping for. The question really is, will 'he' even try?

Kindest regards,
Solst