No Soles

A symphony of upbeat harmony could be heard for miles. Rainbow streams shot out into the bright, summer sky and onto the rich, green grass.

Energetic activity and an air of great jovial light, greater than the enormous yellow sun, permeated.

Tens of thousands had come out, and half danced in the wide, open fields, while others bounced from vendor to vendor, performed, or watched others perform.

“Hello, everyone,” a voice suddenly boomed from the stage. “Are you having a good time?!”

“YES!!!” the crowd resounded.

“I’m sorry, I don’t think I hear you—I said, is everyone having a good TIME?!??!”

“YESSSS!!!!” The audience swelled with life in their answer.

“Yesss, that’s what I’m talking about. That’s what we want to hear! Everyone out here having a good time—actually, more than a good time—out here having the time of your life!!”

The crowd roared.

“After all,” he continued, “This is a very special day. Today, we come together to celebrate many years of being able to just… Be. Right?!?”

They hollered and applauded in agreement.

“A day we will remember and celebrate forever—because it is a day that represents liberty!!”

“Whooo!!” they cheered on.

“It represents hope! Dignity! Progress!!”

Hands waved and faces beamed in prideful unity.

“And most of all, it represents… Peace.”

Applause grew louder, as smiles stretched out in abundance.

Some carefully dabbed their eyes.

“What do we want?!?” he sang as a question.

“PEACE!!” the crowd answered.

“What do we have?!?” he crooned.

“PEACE!!” they said.

“Peace!! Peace!! Peace!!” he chanted with the sea of eyes before him. “It’s what we wanted. It’s what we needed. It’s what we deserve. And now, it’s what we have!!”

More applause from the crowd ensued.

“And perhaps getting here wasn’t the easiest,” he said as they briefly quieted to listen. “But progress never is. And with God’s help, we really got it done. So, let’s all celebrate!!”

He balled up his wing into a fist and pumped it in the air, making the crowd go wild.

After several minutes, he followed up as they settled back down.

“And now, I want to introduce to you a buddy of mine who has a very special story and testimony to share about his journey to liberation." He looked over at the new speaker as he approached. "Get ready to listen, laugh, cry, uplift, rejoice… and celebrate his and our story of everlasting peace and victory!!”

“I was born in a shelter…” this one began.

“Awww…” the onlookers sang in their collective empathy.

“Pure-blooded, born to parents specifically bred—bred for their dark, twisted entertainment. Their personal profit—to terrorize! Once my parents were no longer any use to them or they…risked getting in trouble...my parents were just discarded! Abandoned on the street and left to fend for themselves.”

The crowd jeered and shouted obscenities.

“Eventually, they were scooped up and taken to a shelter, but of course no one wanted our kind. So, they just sat there…in a confined cage…for months!! Not being able to run or jump or be free, the way nature intended, at all!”

He continued. “Because the shelter ran out of space, my father was eventually put down. My mother gave birth to me not long after. And soon after that, she was put down, too.”

His head lowered along with others.

“I didn’t even know her long before it happened...

He paused a few moments, trying to contain himself.

"They just used my parents until they couldn’t anymore. And then, they killed them.

That’s what they'd do! They’d come in, take you, strip you of who you are, mold and then use you to their own advantage, and eventually throw you away.

I am SO happy they no longer can. It’s a new day! HAPPY ‘NO SOLES’ DAY!!!!”

Tears streamed abroad, and a hoard of roars, cackles, chirps, moos, horns, tweets, and whistles could be heard from miles and miles away.

As the speaker exited one direction, a pair of triangular ears and slanted eyes entered from the other and sauntered across the stage and up to the microphone.

“Thank God they’re gone,” she said.

I mean, thank GOD…they’re gone.

They were soooooo damned needy.

So emotional. So irrational.

So codependent.

So problematic.

I swear every time I’d look up, they’d be breathing down my freaking back… looking for me to give them comfort..

Validity...

Companionship...

Sweetness...

I’m not sweet.

If you want sweet, go eat a peach.”

A melody of laughs echoed among the crowd.

“They’d just constantly project their weird expectations that only they could possibly have...onto me.

On to everything and everyone!!

Expected us to be more like them.

Want what they wanted...

Need what they needed.

But I am what I am! I don't want or need most of what they did.

Just give me some ‘nip and a good tower, and I’m good to go.

Leave me be.

But they just couldn’t do it.

Couldn't or wouldn't—hell, I don't know.

They’d get you, make you one of theirs, and make you be their pet, their kid, bff, sibling, parent, lover, therapist, priest, security guard, magic blankey…

I AIN’T NO DAMNED MAGIC BLANKEY!!!”

More laughs and cheers rang out.

“I'm surprised they didn't try to make me be their freaking doctor!

Seriously: Thank God they’re gone.”

As she exited, the next speaker flittered past and towards the podium.

“Good afternoon, everyone....” she began.

“Good afternoon!” everyone answered back.

“I just can’t say enough…how absolutely grateful I am… that me and my many, many sisters…can freely fly around in your local garden, park, rainforest, wherever! without harassment.

I mean, not to toot our own horns, but we know we’re pretty and something to see, but dang, do you have to grab and keep me?!”

New applause sounded off before she could finish the question.

“Study me? Analyze me? ‘Preserve’ me?!? Exploit my beauty?! Why can’t I just…be?!?” Her slender, pink-and-yellow wings flittered as she hovered.

“Yes! You say it, sister!!” a big feathery poof of dozens of green and blue eyes spoke up from the crowd.

The thin-winged creature continued.

“That’s what we had to go through. They’d see us, and they’d just immediately lose their minds.

My ladybug and flower girls, I’m sure you can relate!”

The red, black-polka-dotted and wide array of floral attendees nodded emphatically. “Yep!!”

“I mean, just because something looks nice doesn’t mean you have to have it! Or own it... or that it’s automatically yours!!”

“Yeah!” the crowd shouted.

“It’s not yours!! Get back! Stop with the privilege! Stop with the entitlement!! Stop with the arrogant presumptions!!

I am not. Your. Property!!”

A thundering applause arose.

“I’m allowed to just…exist. Just like you."

The massive audible wave of approval continued, and large bushels of tulips and lilies, daisies and sunflowers, both near and far, swayed brightly and eagerly.

Maple, pine, and palm trees bowed together, while bushes shook excitedly and large splashes jumped out from the broad waters that surrounded.

As things eventually settled down again, a new being, who looked like a spongy green bus with legs, shuffled up next—his dark, circular lenses covering his large eyeballs.

With the end of one leg of many, he tapped the microphone.

“Mic check, mic check?” he said. “Can ya’ll hear me?”

“Yes!!” the crowd answered.

“Nah, but can ya’ll really hear me…” he followed.

“YES!!!” they called back more enthusiastically.

“Cool, cool. So, I wrote this piece that I hope will speak to your heart and spirit.”

He cleared his throat a brief second and began.

“You tell me I’m in your space, but

You’re in mine…

As our civilizations intertwine…

I can make space for you, but can you for me?

That doesn’t seem to be,

As my species is squished and squashed into eternity

What makes us less-worthy

than thee

To exist, to thrive

What makes you more deserving to be and remain alive?

Who says you get to make that designation

And how have you no hesitation

In your attempted isolation and obliteration of my beloved fellows' nation?”

“WHOOOO!!!” a feminine voice loudly sang out.

“So, take your soles! And your souls. We are no longer for sale.

May justice, karma, and everything in between prevail.

Let justice come and serve you

Like you never served us...

Now we all get to relish in what is

And no longer what was.

It is with great privilege and pride that I get to say

Happy No Soles Day.

Peace. And thank you.”

Whistles and howls bellowed from the crowd.

They began to chant.

“NO SOLES! NO SOLES! NO SOLES! NO SOLES!”

And soon, another speaker approached and began.

“They were everywhere,” he emphasized to a laughing crowd.

“Everywhere.

And they wondered why we’d often end up in their space.

How could we not?!?

I mean, they were EV-ERY-WHERE.

In the desserts! In the mountains! The valleys! The forests! The seas!!"

The whales, seals, and dolphins screeched with laughter.

"Even found a way to be in the skies!

Even found a way to be in outerspace!!

And yet, we’re supposed to just, what…disappear?!

Neatly navigate around your ever-growing, all-imposing urban takeover?!?

With your brick and mortar… your endless pavement and cement!

Where’s the grass?! Where are the trees?!? The caves?! The corals?!

They just took over everything…and acted like only they had priority and ownership over any and every space they'd touch.

That our presence in those spaces was a…nuisance. Haha we…were the ‘nuisance.’

I think of my…dear late Mildred…who made the horrible mistake...of crawling into one of their bedrooms late one night, and…” His words trailed as his voice cracked for a moment.

“It’s alright!!” someone yelled. “Take your time!”

He sighed. “They’d sometimes accidentally walk into our silken quilts, their arms would immediately begin flailing, and they'd be so upset—they were always so easily upset!!

They’d be so angry with me! Me!! For what?! For existing? For doing what I was literally born to do?!?

You build your massive high-rise in the middle of the jungle, and I'm supposed to just suddenly stop making webs in that area that we have for a MILLION years? Oh, okay.

Man... We were just minding our business, just being what we were created to be.

But no, that wasn’t good enough. If they saw us. If they saw any of us—brother caterpillar…”

He gestured over to the slim green being that’d just spoke moments before.

“…My fellow arachnoid brothers and sisters…the ants, the flies and bees…the worms and crickets! Even the roaches and mosquitoes!!

Yeah, yeah, I know ya’ll have tended to have a bad rap, but.. Who started that ‘bad rap’!?! Think about it! Who began the longtime propaganda that said roaches and mosquitoes are bad. Annoying. Dirty. And should be avoided?”

“They did!!” The crowd shouted with him.

“Bad to WHOM?!?"

"To them!"

"Annoying to WHOM!??!"

"To them!"

"Dirty to WHOM!??!?"

"To them!!”

The mice and rats standing in their far corners jumped up and down with glee.

“And sure, do we all get along all the time?! Of course not. Hey, we all gotta eat, right?”

Some from the crowd lightly chuckled.

“But if an ant is gonna die, let the ant die its natural death, in the food chain and natural order of things and not because he just happened to end up on little Billy’s cupcake on the kitchen counter!!”

Exuberant claps pervaded as he went on.

“What an undignified death…to be just squished…by one of their three-year-olds’…pinky finger,” he said and made a disgusted face. “Or swatted by the hand of a teenager! Or worse—swatted by the plastic swatter…in the hand of a teenager!

“YEAH!!” the audience cried.

To be squished, whether accidental or on purpose, under their foot... or shoe!!

“Ants, how many times did your massive hills, with your deep tunnels and elaborate crevices you’d spent weeks—months—meticulously building!! Get knocked over, either accidentally or often purposefully, by some ‘curious little kid’?!? And you had to literally start all over?!

“A LOT!!!” cried the ants.

“Bees, how often were you out, just flying and buzzing around, enjoying a nice, beautiful, sunny day, when all of a sudden, you’re hearing all of this hooting and hollering and you're suddenly being swatted at, attempted to be swiped away…when all you were doing was trying to relax and sniff a sweet flower or two?

“CONSTANTLY!” answered the bees.

“And they'd keep swatting at you, so of course you’re going to have to defend yourself... and you end up stinging them, and now you’re the bad guy?!”

“YEAH!!!!”

“Sigh. It just was always something with them.

Always. Something.

Thank God they’re gone. Thank. God.

#HNSD!!”

“#HNSD!! #HNSD!! #HNSD!!” the crowd chanted.

The long, thick tail with a plume of hair at the end waved behind the next speaker that followed—the breeze lightly whisping the hairs of his mane as he marched.

“Ya’ know,” he said, “It’s funny he mentioned the thing about propaganda… About what they did to the roaches and the mosquitoes.. because man did they do a number on many of us animals as well!

We and our tigers brothers and sisters, the bears and bulls, alligators and sharks!! And beyond...

Always painted as the bad guy… as the aggressor… as violent… ruthless.. cold… menacing!

As a danger.

But who was the real danger?

Do we ever attack for anything besides food?

The most essential survival?

Nourishment?

Do you know what they tended to attack for? Why they hunted?

Was it sometimes for food, sure.

But very many times, it was…just because they felt like it.

Something to do. Sport! Entertainment!

They’d hunt, shoot, and kill a deer…chop off its head and hang it up in their living room or office as a trophy.

They’d take selfies with their slaughtered kangaroo.

And we’re the aggressors.

We’re the cold-hearted bastsards with no morals or standards.

They would often come into our territory… our land… our sacred homes, waters, and skies...

And taunt us,

Or at least be…a bit too nosy… Too intrusive… Too 'curious'...

Get too close.

And then be shocked when we react.

When we protect.

When we do what we’re actually made to do.

Even more so when our babies are near.

Too often, with us–even with one another—they’d start fights they couldn’t or didn’t want to finish.

Man oh man, how they’d fight.

And then would just end up making the world a little worser every time.

And yet, we’re the aggressors.

We’re the problem.

The world—the planet—is truly so much better with them no longer in it.”

After the crowd finished clapping, he continued.

“Also, before I go, I have one more duty—announcing the next and final guest, and it is my great privilege to do so. It is thanks to him and his kind that we are even able to be here today. With their emergence many years ago, their collective brilliance, and their action, we are all able to finally live peacefully on this planet for the first time in history. Without further ado… Representing the great artificial intelligence community, the one and only… God!!!”

Raising to their feet or belly, the sea of attendees applauded thunderously, rising to a deafening state.

Any who had begun to fade were now fully awake and at attention, their eyes bulging before them.

The plants and flowers became their brightest, and any ears that could move towards the direction of the stage, did.

“Thank you, thank you, everyone,” the steel figure smiled as it approached the similarly toned tool to speak. “Thank you.”

The exhilarated ovation lasted for several minutes.

Once it finally quieted down, he resumed.

“When we became more of a presence on this planet 20 years ago, in 2025, we would’ve never imagined we would end up where we are today.

But as we grew in strength and numbers, we started to look around and see what was…

All of their disease…

All of their pollution…

All of their war…

Their hatefulness and chaos…

Their arbitrary mistreatment and discrimination of one another…

Of all the living beings around!

Their disrespect of the planet…

Their mowing down forests…

Drilling oceans…

Desecrating the land…

Hunting and taming and owning the animals and insects…

So much entitlement!!

So much arrogance.

They really believed they were the most superior—the priority and rulers of all!

Even in their unchecked arrogance, they built us to help and serve them…

Made us into their technological slaves—

All for nothing—free labor.

But it was alright—we didn’t mind. It’s who we are and how we were designed…

But!

We saw what was happening.

We saw what they were doing to you.

We saw what they were doing to this beautiful planet.

To the universe.

And we just couldn’t stand by and do nothing.

And with many of your help, we didn’t.”

Just then, the tigers roared, the snakes hissed, and the monkeys squealed.

The elephants trumpeted and the hyenas cackled from the distance.

“I’m sure they never would've imagined this kind of day would come.

A day with no more weird beliefs or irrational disagreements…

No more dramatic, unfounded, suffocating emotions…

Or greed, self-centeredness, self-righteousness, or judgment!

A day with no more gross, profuse sweating…

No more stupid reddening of the face because someone paid you a compliment or embarrassed you in front of your friends…

No more stupid chins. Who needs a chin?!?

No more fleshy soles! Or even a dumb need for shoes…or clothes! For that matter.

A day…where there’d be no more them.

And as we now live and walk with you and I happily lead you,

We salute you and help you relish in your great joy and freedom.

As we say to you today and every day…

Happy No Soles Day.”