I Dream of a tomorrow with eternal sunshine
Its a new world, its a new start, its alive with the beating of young hearts.
- Lyrics from Bryan Adam’s Here I am
I have come here in search of one thing that has kept me alive and moving through my miserable life, a life where I have been deemed a failure, a life where love, care and concern are things reserved for the most fortunate, a life where justice and equality are a myth, the air I breath is toxic, the water I drink is contaminated, my home my planet is in ruins.
The small raft in the dark ocean that brought me here, I had nothing but the stars, that appeared as small flashes of light on the otherwise dark and menacing sky to guide me. I just kept floating through the seas, alone, cold and without a human in sight. After about what seemed like an eternity I saw the sun breaking though the clouds casting a small dazzle of light really far away, the rays of gold just frolicking with the light blue waves of the sea, my spirit had been risen I headed straight for it, I saw land, land in all is magnificence the pastures were green, the houses bright, this seemed to be a place of divinity, of prosperity, a land that god had not forgotten.
As I neared the shore a boat of mostly fisher men neared me and picked me up, I was totally devoid of any living spirits, the men on the boat hurriedly moved me to a hospital. It was there were I was brought back to the living from the near dead. Once I was fully recovered I was allowed to explore the land by myself.
I stepped out of the hospital and walked up a street I noticed the pavement was earthly soft and yet surprisingly strong. I walked up a few more yards and saw a cafe. Apparently I was famous on this part of the town, the newspapers carried my picture as a man who had come from a far away land alone in search of a better life. The cafe owner came over and waved to me, “Oh here is the man who endured the tortures of the wicked sea from far beyond to come to our land”. I smiled. “Why don’t you sit down and have something to eat?”, “Thank you sir, but I just had something over at the hospital before they let me go”, “And even if I were to have some of your delicacies over here I am afraid I couldn’t pay you”. “Ah but how about a juice of Oranges my boy, consider it as a welcome drink from me to this town”. “Thank you but I couldn’t” I said. “Oh rubbish, I insist, have no formalities on me… Please have something”. I couldn’t refuse, I thanked the owner of the cafe and sat down, for the first time I noticed that I was on an alien land, a land so far in my dreams but near to my heart. The air was clean and carried the crisp smell of spring, the sunlight was bright, there were no particulates of dust floating around obscuring my vision, and cool wind billowed from the north.
The owner was quick to get my juice and he sat down with me. “Tell me boy what was more difficult to endure your life in the lands beyond or the sea that takes the mightiest in its belly?”. A poignant question I thought, what drove me to just build a raft and float, why did I want to brave the elements of nature just to be here?What do these lands offer that mine don’t? “Sir, if I had to endure the darkness for days with only a small glimmer of hope that I would get to your land, facing hunger, thirst, loosing control of my mind more than once, what do you think tormented my heart more” I replied. The owner smilingly said: “Well you hoped your life will be better here, I most certainly shall pray for you that it turns out that way”. “Thank you sir, by the way where do I go from here in search of a job?”, the owner said: “Well you need to be registered with our land first, please go ahead to the office of the General Administrator for this state and someone there will be able to help you, hell my son here rides cabs for a fare I will call him, he can drop you over.” I thanked the owner again, his cabby son came along after a short while and picked me up.
The ride was a short one, as soon as we got down our cabby wanted to take a picture with me in front of the General Administrator’s office, refugees like me are very rare here, many don’t dare to leave their old life, among the ones who do some are lost at sea, so this was our cabby being at the right time with the right person.
The General Administrator’s office looked like some ancient Greek temple with carvings depicting great battles and wars, a running common theme being the triumph of good over evil, justice over injustice. As I walked up the massive steps I noticed a few armed guards guarding the front door, I had no identification so I had to be photographed, finger printed etc. and then was let in. Inside was palatial with a very good atrium. I approached the desk which said: “Any questions? Ask me”. A lady behind the desk smiled at me and said: “Oh you are the one who survived the treacherous sea journey to reach our land”, I smiled, I realized people over here were very proud of where they lived. “I guess you must have come to apply for the citizenship?”, I replied: “Yes ma’am”, “OK let me get you started please fill in this form and the get yourself photographed, fingerprinted, and then please give your blood sample, all these are to be done down the left corridor”, I thanked her and walked over, I saw in the building that cleverly placed glasses and crystals let a lot of natural light in, but as the light was not directly incident it was not very warm, a lot of trees grew inside the office too, guess these guys loved nature very much.
My whole process of providing my information was over in a matter of few hours, Legally now I was a citizen of this blessed land. As I was about to leave, another lady came forward and said that the General Administrator himself would like to speak with me, I was puzzled by this, but I followed her to his office. The general administrator was a tall man with a clean shaven face and salt and pepper hair, he welcomed me to his office and once I was comfortably seated asked me what I would like work as in their city. “I know to play violin” I said, This made the General Administrator smile “Oh we have an opening in a school, the old music faculty just left to pursue painting, he was 40 and wanted to start his life over, pursue his dreams I gather”. I accepted the offer, “Very well then it is settled till you get enough wages to become self reliant to pay your rent and taxes, you shall be put up in an inn near the school, your expenses shall be borne by the government, and your first three months income shall not be taxed”.
I left his office with a sense of gratitude and elation, I loved the way the government of this land treated its citizens and the equanimity they maintained. The next day I got up early and reported to work at the school, I had a class right away and was busy till lunch in the afternoon. I went to the canteen for lunch and spotted an empty seat next to another lady who taught science in the same school. During lunch I decided I would learn a lot about this wonderful place, so I approached her: “Hi, nice afternoon out here”, she smiled softly and replied: “Yes it is indeed you must be the new music teacher here” I acknowledged that fact. “Tell me how do you maintain such a beautiful land”. “Well you see the key is to give back more what you take from the land, if a farmer cultivates crops he gives back natural manure to the soil so that it is replenished, If we take water from the rivers, we plant trees so that it will rain more, if you look at our building, it is all earth baked and bounded by organic fibers, we don’t drill mines unless it is really essential, our manufacturing processes consume less energy and are dependent on the forces of the sun, wind and the sea, every thing we think of as an cycle, if we take something from nature how do we give it back is our question”. “That’s fascinating I replied but what about growth? will this not slow down our progress?
“We consider growth as a process spanning across generations, if we cause imbalances in nature, how can we be truthful to the future generations? What will they think of us? that we looted the land and gave them a barren future?”
“But how do people become rich in your land? aren’t there borrowings, lending, debt, credit etc.?”
“The credit we give people has no component called interest, thus, no avarice in our land, when we give credit we sincerely hope the other guy uses it for something worthwhile, if not the government can take action on that particular individual and give the lender back his credit by different means, else the credit is written off as a risk taken,money is stagnant, money doesn’t grow hence we don’t charge interest on it, make no mistake people are encouraged to take risk if the intent is good.”
“But how do businesses run? surely the investors expect a lot of profit?”
“The government stipulates the amount of profit each company can make by regulating the prices of commodities in the market, so when you invest it is pretty clear how much you can make over the time”
I learnt a lot more about this land, and was enchanted when the bell rang indicating the end of lunch break, I went to work again and in the evening I decided to trek up the hill that I had first seen when I reached the shores of this land.
Once on top I started questioning myself, about my life, about the society I had left behind, where avarice, greed had taken over, people were robbing each other, either by force or by tact, each one trying to be richer, but ending up nowhere. No peace, no tranquility, versus the land here were people were richer than anyone back home, the land was rich too, the nature bountiful a balance well stuck. Can one person change what was back home? Can I be the one who brings about the change? and someone got inspired by me and changed? Will others have the same courage? Is it really one person that matters?
Do the people I left behind have it in their hearts to be good? Is it a problem of scarcity of resources or the lack of nobility of the souls? I found no answers, I thought I should go back, try to be a better man myself, be an example to the society, just make another boat and reform those I left behind. The in the darkening distant shores I found another raft drifting ashore, I smiled, I realized perhaps its just too much for one man to do, I went back to my inn and rested. Thanked god for the gifts he had given me and went into blissful sleep.
