The Power to Save the World is in You

We read about it in our history books and see it in the daily news: humans turning arms against one another, whole cities exploding in a plume of smoke and ash, animals being brutalised to serve our greed, species of numerous organisms driven to the verge of extinction and countless other cruelties. For all our glorious achievements of mapping the stars and stripping the atom down to its quarks, we humans are selectively blind to the hurt we have inflicted upon the planet and its people.

We put on a veil of indifference that allows us to ignore issues like racism, gun violence, climate change, and terrorism when they do not affect us directly. We allow our prejudices to take root and prevent us from feeling pain for the black man who was murdered by a white police officer. We turn the other way when we see the transgender girl being kicked out of her family for the “outrageous crime” of being born into the wrong body. We forget all about the dog who was crippled by an overspeeding mini truck when we reach the next signal. We are so deeply entrenched in our own lives, so stuck on our own road that we do not have the time to stop the car, to take a detour and help out those who need us the most.

We are trapped in the quicksand of differing ideologies and interests. We’ve trained ourselves to seek out the differences between us all and have allowed those to confine us to narrow gorges of limited thought. However, the smell of freshly-baked bread gives the same joy to people, no matter which part of the world they live in. The hollow of the ribs with hunger is universal. One does not need language to appreciate the beauty of flowers blooming. The beauty of connection is its universality, and how it transcends the barriers of oceans, languages and beliefs.

Today, our planet is burning. The nitrogens, sulphurs and the burning hydrocarbons are like cigarettes charring the lungs of our planet. Animals are being killed so can we profit off their body parts. Trees are being cut for the same reason. To make space for human life, we are squeezing out the life of all others who make up our world. This is the age of the Anthropocene where we are the makers of our destiny. We decide the fate of our planet and choose which species continues, and which one dies out. 

The success of the Save Tiger campaign is a testament to this. When the government recognised the alarmingly low numbers of the tiger left in the wild, it launched a conservation programme to raise the tiger population by banning hunting. Today, India has the largest tiger population in the world. The Chipko Movement is yet another example. It was inspired by about 300 Bishnoi women who sacrificed their lives to save khejri trees from being felled by the king who ruled over their region. However, the Yangtze River Dolphins suffered a much worse fate. Neglected by humans, they were last spotted more than a decade ago and are believed to be extinct now. The Dodo birds of Madagascar island became extinct in the 17th Century because they were recklessly killed by European settlers and their hunting animals. Nevertheless, two things we can learn from the past are these: our actions matter greatly, and compassion can heal both humanity and the planet.

The fossil of a 40-year-old Homo erectus male was discovered some years ago. His jaw bone had one tooth and research suggested that it was through the kindness of his community, that he could sustain himself. His species is now extinct, but if we were to show our development as a species to our evolutionary ancestors who lived 2 million years ago, they would understand nought except the string of compassion that connects all of us. Kindness and compassion are the threads that run along the cracks of the world. It is comforting to believe that if we, as a species, grow extinct one day, those who come after us will know nothing from our remains except how connected we were to each other. 

It is compassion, after all, that has kept us alive. From the time when we were helpless infants dependent on our parents for food, shelter, protection and love; till the time we grow old and are at the mercy of the younger generation to provide for us, it is compassion that will hold the key to every soul. It is because of compassion that we place a bowl of water on our windowsills in summer, that volunteers work in non-profit organisations, that people provide disaster relief or medical aid. There’s goodness in every heart if you squint hard enough. 

Thus, do not be silent. Silence is golden, but what use would a Midas touch be if the fruits on your plate are made of gold and you cannot eat them? What would be the use of flying cars if the Earth is so polluted that people would have to subsidize oxygen? What would be the use of sky-rise glass buildings if we keep throwing stones at each other in the name of religion, race, caste and gender? Scientific advancement without care and compassion for others is no development. The issues of the world are too large to be tackled alone, but if each one of us helps to bring a change in the environment, there will be no issue we can’t tackle.

To do that, you must find where the issues of the world intersect with your life. Go treat that bleeding dog who was hit by a mini truck. Fight for the woman who doesn’t have scars to prove the domestic violence that happens in her house. Stop the watchman when he’s taking an axe to the neem tree. Heroes do not come in capes. Heroes look like the girl returning from the market who stepped aside from her usual path and untangled the tail of a goat that was stuck between the fence, or like the doctor whose heart yearns to stop the pain of each of her patients. Heroes look very much like you and me because compassion comes from observation. When their bleeding wounds tug at our tears and our hands move of their own accord to stop their pain, that is when each of us can save the world. 

a/n: written for a competition.