A  Fable for Our Time

By Christa Muths. 
Pictures by Birk Ristow, age 13.

It was Sunday afternoon. The sun was slowly disappearing towards the horizon. People were going home to eat and prepare themselves for a new week and Oakie, the giant oak tree stood alone, thoughtfully looking across the huge meadow, the little lake on the horizon and the small forest on the other side of him and at the trees in the graveyard opposite. He watched the people packing their bags and their blankets and moving out of the Common in all directions, back to their cars. He noticed the litter they had left and the mess. Car fumes were reaching Oakie, first a small trickle of fumes but then the smell and amount of fumes became heavier and thicker. Oakie started coughing and shook himself as much as he could to shake the smell and dirty smoke and soot off of his leaves. Being sooo huge he caught a lot of  the soot and other stuff which otherwise would have fallen down on smaller trees and bushes and onto the ground. While he was still shaking himself, small trees and bushes near him complained loudly. “Oakie!”, they cried, “will you stop it?! We can’t breathe and it smells so awfull!”

“What do you want me to do?” Oakie said, “just  put up with it all? I just get so much because I am so big and tall. I can’t put up with it all alone!” And he kept on shaking himself, just like a dog when it comes out of the water.

Suddenly there was a chorus of indignation from all sides: foxes complained loudly about the smell and the fumes blinding their vision, squirrels, rabbits, badgers and all sorts of animals joined in the chorus of complaining. Even the insects stood still and joined in, as they also had problems breathing properly when hit by the fumes. The birds rested on Oakie and other trees around and told stories of how the fumes affected even their surroundings and lives. The seagulls were the most angered and cried out again and again how the fumes of the humans’ cars are even affecting the sea air. Some seagulls who had been flying out with big containerships reported that it was much better far out on the sea, but no other animal could go so far out. So they talked about how fresh the air out on the seas was, how blue the sky and how wonderfully clear the nights were.

Oakie was dumbstruck by all the complaining and unhappiness of the animals. So he called them all to join with him and together try to find a solution to the problem: how to make the humans aware of their problems, their unhappiness, and the difficulties in their lives, that the humans caused.

Serpy, the only surviving snake of the common was the last one to arrive. She also listened to what everybody had to say and said with a very sad voice: “I understand all your complaints, but at least you have many, many relatives or friends of your own kind left! I am totally alone here now.” And a few tears rolled down on either side of her eyes.

There were a few seconds of silence and sympathy for the snake..

Even the owl, a nocturnal animal, felt the unusual atmosphere. It woke her up before normal waking time. When she saw what was happening on the common, she informed her night friends, the bats. So they all joined the circle.

After Serpy, the snake had spoken Oaky said thoughtfully: “These humans are only a few compared to all of us. How could we have allowed them to become so powerful and to destroy our environment?”

“Oh, that’s easy!” said the speaker for the aggressive foxes “We did not fight them! You are all cowards, well most of you. Only some poisonous spiders or snakes take on humans and maybe some wild or angry dogs. But here we do not have any poisonous snakes anymore, so there are just a few spiders and some dogs left. We are just too peaceful to attack them. I think we should change our tactics and find a way to destroy them. Why not? That’s what they do to us! What goes around comes around. So the humans will only get what they already deserve!”

The speaker for the clever rats said: “I second the idea! What a brilliant move! We have to find a way to give them our diseases, so that these will spread and they will all be die! Hehehehehehehehe, and we will the feasts of our lives!”, he laughed and was very pleased with himself being so clever.

The speaker for the spiders spoke out: “Well, we can travel very fast and far a field with the wind. We need many, many poisonous spiders here to sting them, so that they die; well at least most of them. Let’s get on and do it.” Spiders are very practical insects, they like to go ahead and do it

The seagull speaker also talked about the plight of the fishes in the sea and at that point the fishes in the lake joined in. Fishes have a communication system with their relatives in the big seas, rivers and oceans: they communicate through the water of the rivers and the rain. All water drops bring with them information from where they have been and the fishes can understand it. Trees too use a communication system. They communicate through the rain and also the wind and even the insects bring them news. Even stones communicate with each other, so the whole animal and plant world, even the mineral world have ways of letting each other know what is happening around them.

The owl and the bats complained about the artificial lights at night and how it made their lives and finding food at night so much more difficult.

The seagulls suggested that birds should eat through all the powerlines to cut them and than there would be no more artificial light at night.

The lake reported on the pollution of all the waters and suggested that with the help of rain, the rivers should overflow all the land and in the process all humans would simply drown.  

Oakie called out very loudly to everyone to calm down and to continue with the debate sensibly. He turned to wind and rain and said angrily: “Stop that nonsense at once! You are not helping! Please support us all to find a solution.” The wind was quite shocked that such a small tree (speaking in wind-terms) had the courage to tell him off. The rain started laughing, he was always up for every mischief and said, bowing to the tree: “Yes, Oakie, I will do! I prefer to rain happily and jollily anyway”, and stopped immediately.

But still they all talked about how to defend themselves and how  to attack the humans. After everybody had given their ideas of how to punish the humans and get rid of them for good, the snake Serpy stood up, raised her head up so far, that even the furthest animal and tree could see her and feel her presence and said thoughtfully: “Do we really want to destroy them, all of them? Look friends, that is not realistic! How can we do that? They have been controlling the world for a while now. There will always be some survivors left. Look at me! I am the only survivor of my species here in this area.

Do we really want that kind of fate happening to the humans? All the humans? Not all humans are bad! Some really help us! Some even understand us and speak with us! So how do we make sure we are not killing the wrong ones?”

The snake sighed in sorrow about the troubles of the world.

After she had spoken, there was a silence. Even the aggressive foxes stood silent and were thoughtful, the spiders sat quietly in their nets, the squirrels sat on their back legs, the upper ones folded in front of them, even the wind who was now quietly listening in was thoughtful.

 “What on earth can we do with the human race?”, everybody thought in despair.

Just at this very moment, a human family with two children, who had taken shelter under the trees of the graveyard moved out of their shadows into the open field of the common. The two younger children 7 and 11 years of age saw immediately the congregation of animals and they felt that something was different. They stopped their parents and held their hand up them for them to stand still and wait.

Oakie looked sadly at the family and then said to the others: “Well? Do you really want to kill all humans? Look at the children, how sweet and innocent they look and they are even aware that something is different here.”

“Forget it”, said the Foxie, the speaker of the foxes, “they soon become adults, you are too soft Oakie! Believe me, these innocent looking kids loose their innocence once they have been to school for a few years.”

The father wanted to continue walking but the mother stopped and said: “We cannot interfere here. Our children are right. Let’s turn back and go home.” The children protested. They wanted to stay and wait and watch.  Well, deep down they wanted to join the group. So the family stood in silence and waited.

Blacky, the huge raven, knew the children. In winter times he and his mates had been fed very often by this family. They had a big garden and fed the birds throughout the winters. Blacky thought for a bit and than took off and flew near the family. He turned to the children and said: “Thank you for feeding us during the winters.” The young girl Sophie understood what Blacky was saying and told her brother Mark. The parents overheard what she said and stood there in total surprise.

“What you are all doing all over there?”, asked Sophie.

“Well”, said Blacky, “dealing with complaints.” He did not know how to explain to Sophie with what kind of complaints they were dealing.

“Complaints about what?” Sophie asked.

“Mmmmmmmmmmmh”, Blacky said, “just complaints.”

“Don’t be a coward!”, the fox cried. “Tell her! So that she can tell everybody, we will wipe out the humans, all of them, once and for all!” His temper had got the better of him.

“Calm down Foxy, she is just a kid”, Blacky answered.

Little Sophie took the hand of her bigger brother and moved closer to him. But she did not translate. Mark and the parents asked her: “What is happening Sophie? Tell us!”

Then Oakie spoke up and said: “something has to be done very soon, but something good, not something bad. We have to find a way out of this whole mess. The humans are destroying everything not only for us but also for themselves. But what can we do?. Owl” turning all his leaves up to the huge old and wise owl who sat in his crown, “Owl, you are old and wise and have flown far afield, do you have any ideas 

Owl sat in silence, slowly shaking her head. “No”, she said, not yet. But Serpy is also very wise in a very different way, she knows all about the earth. Do you have any ideas?” she turned asking  Serpy.

Serpy also slowly shook her head. Foxie’s temper got hold of him again and he cried: “Kill them, they must all  come to a gruesome end. Let’s get rid of them now!”

Oakie was the oldest one of the lot. He looked at the speaker for the foxes and said: “You hothead! You should go and run off that temper!  Getting rid of all humans is not going to work and is also not very clever. We have to come up with a much better solution, so that we can all live happily together.”

Serpy and Owl nodded silently.  They were the senior animals and their opinions did count for a lot.

Sophie had listened to all of this and when the animals, trees and even the stones were thinking quietly to find a solution, she told Mark, what she had heard and her parents listened in.

Suddenly Sophie knew what to do. She left her own family group and went quietly to the trees, birds, lake and stones. They were so deeply in thoughts, that nobody had noticed Sophie coming closer.

“Excuse me please”, Sophie said when she was close: “I have an idea. Would you be so kind and listen to me?”

Oakie, the other trees, the birds, all the animals, and even the lake were shocked. But the Sophie’s parents and  brother were shocked most of all. Strangely enough, nobody did anything, everybody stared at Sophie in total disbelief.

So Sophie continued: “I’ve heard enough to understand you all. Not very many humans understand the language of plants, animals and rocks. I do and I can tell everybody about your problems. My brother Mark will certainly help me and also my parents. 

Sophie’s parents and brother saw her moving her lips but could not hear anything. Well they were too far away but even if they had been closer, they would not have been able to understand, because Sophie spoke a language normal humans could not understand but the group in front of her could.

Sophie continued: “My brother is clever, my mother is a writer and knows many people who publish what they have written, my father is a service engineer. He services machines in big houses and also in television studios. You don’t know what that is, but it means we can reach many, many humans. Grandma and Grandpa are teachers, so they can reach many other teachers and in turn can teach the children, who can teach their parents. We just have to teach the politicians,” she said.

None of the group she was talking to knew about writers, machines or television studios. Not that the birds had not seen machines or television, but they had no word for it. Certainly nobody knew that the word politician meant the people who ran the human world.

But Sophie spoke from her heart and her words were spoken so honestly and with love,  that everybody stopped complaining and listened. Everybody felt the power, strength and magic of her words and was enchanted by it.

Sophie talked about how the children of the world could bring about the much needed change and although animals, plants and trees and also rocks and stones did not understand much of the actual words she spoke, everybody understood that she was speaking from the heart.

When Sophie took a deep breath, to gather air and strength to continue, the wise Owl flew a little bit lower and sat down on a branch so that everybody could see: “Little girl” she said, “You are a wonderful ambassador for more love, understanding and communication in the world. You speak from your heart, everybody will understand you.”

Serpy, the snake, again moved her head up as far as she could and continued: “You have the special gift of being able to feel love and understanding for all species. You can even communicate with us. A gift, most humans lost a long time ago! You can see the beauty in everything and can show everyone else how wonderful the world really is. You can even teach the humans how to communicate with nature again!”

Oakie nodded and all his leaves moved up and rustled his agreement. The wind murmured.  “Yeaaaaah”, said all the animals in their own languages, because everybody was touched. Even the stones sent out feelings of understanding and support to Sophie.

Sophie thanked everybody and tears rolled down her cheeks.

“Listen, everyone”, she then said with a clear voice, filled with emotion: “We need to find a way to open peoples’ hearts. They need to learn to feel with their hearts first before they use their minds. Peoples’ hearts are drying out, becoming hard and narrow. They try to make up for their  the lack of love with greed,  power and control and in the process destroy not only themselves but also our planet.”

“Yeaaaah”, everybody nodded. Not everybody understood her words but the language of the heart reached everybody.

Her parents stood outside near the trees, dumbstruck, but secretly very proud of their daughter. Mark, her brother, had come a bit closer to the group but kept his distance. He still was a bit anxious that something might go wrong and that his little sister might get hurt. He felt he was far enough away not to threaten the group but close enough to be able to help her if need be.  

In cities all over the world groups of people started talking, their hearts warmed up, everybody had a smile on their face. People felt warmly towards each other, many began to hug each other, some people cried when their hearts opened up. 

Meanwhile Sophie had looked at the heavens and asked again fervently, with a clear but very emotional voice: “Sky, heaven, rain and wind, how can you all work together to help us? PLEASE, you need to help us to save the planet!”

At this very moment rainbows appeared, all over the world. People watched in awe and said: “This is a sign that something is changing, we have to go and find out how we can help.”

In the same moment the waters and oceans of the world came gently forward to all the beaches, water drops danced on top of the waves and they were shining in all rainbow colours. The waves moved forward and backwards, like a gentle dance. People on the beaches and in the airoplanes watched in total disbelief and were also very moved by what they saw.

The rain was so happy about his part in the production of rainbows worldwide that he decided on a special treat for everyone. He spoke to light and said: “Why can’t we have little rainbows around the leaves of all the trees?”

 The light, always being a very jolly girl, giggled and said: “Well, it takes a bit of trying out. But fellow rain, you know what needs to be done can be done!”

 So they went to a remote island in the world and tried to produce rainbows around the trees and very little one on the leaves. They had a few failures, where the rainbows didn’t come out in clear colours, but suddenly they got it and guess what?

They could even produce rainbow hearts!

Totally excited they started producing rainbows and rainbow hearts all around the trees in the world and also on the leaves. They kept on giggling with joy while they were doing it. So everyone who saw the rainbows in the sky and the little rainbows of hearts on the trees also heard the giggles of joy. Everybody, humans, trees and plants, animals, stones and crystals were touched deeply in their hearts. Almost everybody cried either out of happiness or from letting go of old wounds, disappointment, anger or even hate. Nobody ever forgot what they saw and their joy of experiencing it with all their senses. So many people had never felt happy before and with their new happiness came trust and deep love for all creatures in the world. People started communicating honestly with each other and in time, with the help of the children, lead by Sophie, they started to communicate with nature again!

Even the politicians were moved and couldn’t escape the trend of the time and now they also wanted to change the world for the better!!!

Sophie and her family and everybody who was present at the original meeting of animals, trees and plants, wind and water, stones and crystals, went around the world for the rest of their lives, reminding people again and again how important it was to keep their hearts open and to keep love for the beauty of the world flowing in everything they did.

 Christa Muths