Dear God, the Mother Earth and we [All Your Children] are Calling You

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Shobhendu Prabhakar

Houston: Dear God, the mother earth and we [all your children] are calling you
• Approximately every 3 minutes one person in the United States is diagnosed with a blood cancer. Approximately every 9 minutes, someone in the US dies from a blood cancer.
• Hunger is the leading health problem among children and adults, causing approximately 45 percent of children’ deaths worldwide.
• 1 in 59 children has been identified with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in the United States.
• 72 million children are unschooled, and about 759 million adults are illiterate.
• 31.1 million individuals were forced to flee their homes in 2016 due to either natural disasters or the war(s).
• One billion children live in poverty, and 80 percent of people live on less than $10 a day.
• 2000+ hurricane related deaths in the US from 1998-2017.
• Between 1994 and 2013, 6893 natural disasters worldwide claimed 1.35 million lives.

Are these numbers enough or do you need more, I asked the God? It depends, the God replied. Depends! On what, I asked? The God said, it depends on what you are trying to say or convey. I responded to the him (her) that all I am trying to say is if you are our father and mother, then why do allow these sufferings to enter in the lives of your sons and daughters. I further asked him (her), each and every parent that I know of, do everything in their powers so that their children can have the best of the best and do not suffer an ounce. Yes, not an ounce! Then, why do you do it a bit (and at times a lot) differently? Is it worth?

I continued to ask the God politely:
• Why can’t all people in this world be acute illness free?
• Why do some have to struggle so hard to make both ends meet?
• Why does the mother earth have to suffer so many times with Tsunamis, hurricanes and earthquakes?
• Why do some children have ASD, Dementia or developmental delays? Do they not deserve a fair chance of growth in life?
• Why is such that when things are going well for a family, all of a sudden, a dad dies in a car accident?
• Why a young kid has to wait months (sometimes years) to find a suitable match for a bone marrow?
• Why at times a 70-year-old mom loses her two sons in a span of few months?
• Why sometimes innocent people have to spend years in prisons just because they were not able to prove that they were not guilty?
• Why and how can you allow someone to be so vulnerable that the others can take undue advantage of him (her)?
Since the God was listening to myself patiently, I thought to ask him some more:
• Why can’t all your children be happy? Why did you even create the word unhappiness and even worse, the feeling of it?
• Why can’t each and every one of your children have equal and fair opportunities? Equal and fair in terms of health, education, and wealth. Equal and fair in terms of family, love, and affection. Caution – When I say equal and fair, I mean on a positive side not a negative one.
• Have you ever tried creating a world that only has one side in it? The world that has only:
o the side of zero negativity
o the side of zero hatred
o the side of zero inequality
o the side of zero scarcity
o the side of zero acute illnesses
o the side of zero animosity, and
o the side of zero sorrows in it

Have you tried creating that kind of the world and it failed OR did you not even try creating it?

Oh no! As I was in the middle of my chat with the God, my mom shook me and woke me up. I was talking to the God in my dream. A dream! Yes, in a dream, but questions are real. Aren’t they? This time, the God listened to me patiently but did not get a chance to respond to my questions. Why? Simply because I did all the talking. How unfair, isn’t it? Well, not really! Another sleep, another dream. And yes, next time, I will let the God do most of the talking and I will pay heed to Epictetus’s saying – keep silence for the most part and speak when you must, and then briefly. Till I talk to the God next time, I would say this to him (her) –

Dear God, the mother earth and we [all your children] are calling you. Your help is immediately needed.

About author:

Shobhendu Prabhakar is MBA [Jones Scholar] from Rice University, Houstonand Master’s in Engineering from BITS, Pilani, India. He lives in Houston.