PLANET EARTH
“While the cities grow bigger, sand transforms into asphalt, oceans, once a symphony of biodiversity, turn into graveyards of plastic, and the air, once keeping us alive, starts to poison us from within.”
Maybe, just maybe, one of the planets might host life. The catch? The system is 40 light- years (235 trillion miles) from Earth. If we could travel at the speed of light, which of course we can’t, it would take us 40 years to get there. Using the Space Shuttle, it would take us roughly 1.5 million years. But those are minor details in this exciting discovery! Regardless, the NASA site tickles our fancy with mock travel posters and playful text proclaiming, “Let our Exoplanet Travel Bureau book your trip to the fourth planet in the TRAPPIST -1 system, featured in our new travel poster.” Then there’s the 360 VR renderings of the surface of our faraway cousin, transporting us to its red-tinted surface and unbelievable night sky. Disclaimer text reads, “You are viewing an artist’s impression of what an exoplanet surface might look like, based on limited data. No actual images of this planet exist.” As generations passed, Mother Earth transformed into an alien world for those who only look up toward the stars and dream of a world that is not theirs. Humans become strangers to their own planet. While the cities grow bigger, sand transforms into asphalt, oceans, once a symphony of biodiversity, turn into graveyards of plastic, and the air, once keeping us alive, starts to poison us from within. We turn from explorers and astronauts into aliens to our own home, creatures that can’t connect with Earth but are looking for another one, a better one. One thing for sure is that humans have been combing the skies for a long time, and we’ve never found anything that compares to the singular gem known as Mother Earth. Imagine if we did. We would celebrate it, study it, cherish it. Now imagine what would happen if the resources and brain power expended toward finding another Earth were instead invested in preserving and protecting this one. After millennia of eyes to the skies, humans have become far-sighted, and the treasures beneath our feet are a blur. We quest to find another Earth while alienating the one that gave birth to us, the one to which we earthlings belong.
She sat between the stones and roof tiles for hours, the light of dawn breaking softly through the remaining pieces of glass. The reflections on the floor shot light into the sky, and for just a moment, she thought maybe somewhere, far out there, someone is watching me and seeing the blink of light. Knowing I am here, where I belong.
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MOTHER VOLUME THREE
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