Can you imagine the number of people who have lived and left this world? Perhaps, you know a few people you were close to but are no more. Sometimes, it takes a couple of days to finally accept the reality that they are no more. I was very close to my dad. When the news of his passing reached me, I couldn't believe it. I had gone on a job trip and my dad was the last person I greeted goodbye to, and I was sure to meet him when I’d return. It was after the funeral that it dawned on me that I had indeed lost my dear father.
Truly, we cannot tell the number of people who have ever walked the surface of this earth. We read about some in books; some are told in tales or legends, and others we might never know. The ones we are told of, or read about, are connected to one event or the other which became part of known history. But the question is, How has the existence of these people impacted our own existence?
Take for instance, you probably don't know your great, great, great grandparents but they are the vessels through which your own existence was ferried. You, too, will have your own children who will also have their own children and on it will go in that trajectory, and then you'd become an ancestor. Imagine that no one gave birth to you. Where would you come from?
What about those to whom you're not related by blood, say, your friends, neighbors, colleagues or even random strangers you meet everyday? Imagine that you never met any of them, and life was just you alone. Imagine?
You probably didn't give it a thought, how connected we all are in the universe, and one thing or the other would pull a string so you could feel the impact of someone else's existence on yours. It was a simple disobedience of the first humans (according to the Bible) that brought in sin – suffering and death – that has ruptured humanity, and the entire universe. It was the ambition of a man that scattered mankind in different directions and languages. It was the decision of one man that sparked a world war that killed millions of people. It was Just an outbreak somewhere in Asia that resulted in a pandemic, and a global lockdown in 2020. I can go on and on.
The point is this: we are all connected in ways we might never understand until the string that connects us is pulled from whatever angle. But then, we quickly move on from such experiences as though they never happened until, you know, history repeats itself.
There are over 7 billion people on earth. India and China alone have estimated populations of 1.47billion and 1.42billion respectively. Despite this staggering number, one press of a button by one or two people can wipe out an entire population in a matter of minutes.
Every element in the universe is connected; one thing affects the other such that a malfunctioning of one can cause an imbalance or dysfunction of a part or the whole of the universe. Imagine that the earth stops rotating, or revolving. Imagine that the ocean and seas begin to dry up, or there are no more clouds in the sky, or a nonstop snowfall or rainfall. Don't even imagine – that would be chaos!
However, while other creations have sustained their originality, man has been the reason behind the universe falling apart. Pestilences, tsunamis, earthquakes, flood, drought, and global warming are nature’s reactions to the tyranny of human dominion. Man has done greatly in dominating and subduing the earth, but poorly at replenishing, probably due to insufficiency in replenishing power. For this reason, we've relied heavily on artificial replacements for natural installations.
There have been massive protests and calls for the need to protect our earth – it's the only one we've got.
Nature will protect us if we protect it.
