#LISTEN – Letter From the Virus

Stop. Listen. Change.

Just stop, freeze, don’t move.
It’s not a request this time, it’s an order.
I’m here to help you.
This breakneck rollercoaster is running off its rails.
Stop the planes, cruises, factories, shopping malls, gatherings.
We are interrupting the hectic flux of ties and illusions that never let you look up at the sky, study the stars, lend an ear to the ocean, let birdsong surround you, roll down a meadow, pick an apple off a tree, smile to a creature in the wild, breathe in the mountains, take heed of common sense.
We had to interrupt.
You don’t get to play god.
Our obligations are reciprocal, like they’ve always been, even though you may have forgotten.
We’re interrupting this broadcast, this endless cacophony of division and distractions, to bring you the latest update:
We’re not OK.
None of us is, we’re all suffering.
Last year, the firestorms that set the lungs of the earth on fire didn’t stop you, nor did the melting glaciers, or your sinking cities, or knowing you’re the one single cause of the sixth mass extinction.
You wouldn’t listen.
It’s hard to listen when you’re so busy climbing higher and higher (up) the scaffolding of your commodities.
The foundations are crumbling, they’re collapsing under the load of your feverish desires.
I’m here to help you.
I’ll light the firestorms inside your body,
I’ll drown your lungs,
I’ll isolate you like a polar bear marooned on a lone raft of ice.
Now are you listening?
We’re not OK.
I’m not your enemy.
I’m just the messenger, I’m an ally, I’m the balancing force of nature.
You have to hear this – I’m shouting for you to stop!
Just stop, hush, and listen.
Now, look up to the sky, how is it doing? There are no more planes. How clean do you need it to be, to want to breathe it?
Look at the ocean, how’s it doing? Look at the rivers, how are they? Look at the earth, how is she? And look at yourselves: how are you doing?
You can’t be well in a sick ecosystem. Just stop.
Many of you are afraid now.
Don’t demonise your fear, don’t let it control you. Let it speak to you, listen to its wisdoms.
Learn to smile with your eyes.
I’m here to help, just #LISTEN.

Created by Darinka Montico
Narrated by Juan Pablo Di Pace
Inspired by “An Imagined Letter from Covid-19 to Humans” by K. Flyntz.

 

 

We don’t need to “save the planet”. We need to save the planet from ourselves. We are destroying the necessary conditions for human life to continue existing on earth. Earth will outlive us. We have a choice. CHANGE NOW.

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