Moonlight Daze

 She took in the whole scenery. From where the female was positioned, you could make up a few visible houses a bit farther from the land. Opposite to that, in the middle of aged oaks with rumbling foliage, was a lake sparkling under the moon’s glimmer. With millions of coruscating stars above, the sky almost appeared alive. 

The girl jumped down and tied her horse to one of the trees. Giving it one last pat, Carla proceeded to the water and let her feet dangle as she relished the cold whisper of wind on her skin. She also noticed how the frequent small waves distorted the reflection of the moon and shadows of some trees. Her lingering gaze morphed the image shown before her.

The distorted reality. A distant past.

Life, as Clara knows it, exists for the irony. The world was a beautiful place; it was the people living in it that weren’t. The sight in front of her is a proof. This time though, she was not alone. There has to be around 50 people parading in the woods and taking a dip in the lake, but not one of them seemed to respect the view. She could spot some made-up tents carelessly tied around trees, plastic bottles discarded, garbage everywhere, and when she took a look deep in the woods, Clara noticed how unhealthy they looked. A few even seemed cut and burned out. To say the least, the place is horrid.

Some of the conversations Clara overheard while processing the whole situation were nothing but insults for each other; her frown deepened. They loved to highlight each person’s flaw and make it sound as if it’s a sin to differ from society’s norm. Persons with disabilities are mocked for their unusual appearance, people of color are insulted for their natural state, lesbians, gays, and other genders are overlooked and underappreciated, and the most disappointing of all, is how they treat everything as competition and choose to step on each other just to bring themselves up.

These people are just casually cruel and downright rude.

How can they spit words that could possibly wound a person’s feelings? Those weren’t just insults; those were weapons meant to seep into someone’s deepest hurt. Words that could hunt you for the rest of your life. Clara couldn’t even begin to understand why these humans choose to ignore that fact just to feel less miserable about themselves.

Confusing. Awful. And wrong.

In Clara’s reality, people’s rights were one and the same. Respect is automatically given to anyone. There were fights, sure, but only when you did someone wrong. Not for appearances or differences. 

Clara recalls this scene from one of the documentations she watched set between the early 2000s and almost a century ago. Most of the pictures were familiar, she always thought. Only everything looks so much better now, much greener, definitely more picturesque, and from what she gathered a while ago, far more peaceful than here.

Of course, how the changes came to be weren’t always a secret or talked about in hushed tones. They have a subject just for this back in school maybe so the youth won’t make the same mistakes these former residents did and everyone can appreciate the world for what it is- not for what it could have been.

Clara used to think it was amusing how everyone before thought the future Earth is going to be all modern and technology-centered. Old-Earth was so polluted, withered, poor, and sad that the residents actually thought the only way to continue is through a total discard-and-decorate makeover. She couldn’t blame them, though. Old-earth did look hopeless to her. But she’s aware that these people still haven’t really realized that the planet Earth has been here ever since time immemorial- long before anyone of us even existed. If they did, they never paid close attention or think about it in a different level. It lived before, and will continue to live without anyone’s guidance and supervision. The only intervention they have to make is to themselves.

It took a long time, but when humans finally got to understand the concept, they were more than willing to change their ways and let Earth do its own thing without actually getting interfered by man-made pollutants. Each person had at least one environmental-advocacy they chose to support and participate in, the government reduced activities that may cause disturbance to the planet’s healing, factories and businesses were forced to find other ways just to continue their projects and activities without causing pollution or anything that may harm nature, and animals, with the exception to those who are in the verge of extinction, were left alone in the wild in hope that they can aid the natural process of Earth’s restoration.

People have been evil and destructive; we’ve come to terms to that already.

Still, in the end, people came around.

They failed, they endured, they tried, and after all, they succeeded.

"Here, you can have my floater. I’m not using it anyway," Carla saw a little kid giving out his floater to another boy with a disability.

‘Yes,’ she thought with a small smile. ‘They have their moments.’

A loud, neighing sound of a horse managed to wake Carla out of her trance. When she looked up at the sky, she saw the sun slowly peeking out from the clouds. The sound of birds chirping made the early morning even more vivacious.

A tranquil smile graced her face as she recalled her trail of thoughts earlier. It’s absolutely wonderful how a simple act of kindness and unity defined the reality they have now. Carla can only hope that their planet will continue to thrive even after a million year. Progress and growth don’t always have to be all-gray-and-automatic. Humans were only but a tiny speck of dust in this universe. We’re only the occupants of Earth and have no right to change or predict what it will evolve into.

Those were Carla’s thoughts while travelling back to her father’s cottage. The ‘house’ was surrounded by pastures where sheep grazed and where she used to run across as a kid while enjoying the way the sunlight gleamed through trees every day. Carla was excited to show her new hair color to her grandfather. Everyone she met told her that it brings out the color of her eyes: palest blue. Yes, she suffers from albinism, and Carla always took pride of being one of the unique individuals living in such an accepting community. 

The world she came to knew.

Earth is as unique as its people- that’s all we need to understand; causing our planet harm just because something’s not working for us the way we want it to will do us more damage than it will to Earth itself. To put it simply, there is no planet B. Maybe by using this mindset, we’ll prosper even more not just as luxurious, money-making individuals, but as a healthy, peaceful, and worthy residents of this planet.

With that in mind, she can say that she’s proud to see the fruit of her ancestor’s hard-work and lucky to have lived today in this place.

Truth be told, she has no idea where else.