She had so much to give, so much to teach, but her student was daft and difficult and totally self involved. She wasn’t sure he could be taught. Her other students had not been this stubborn, why was he proving to be so much trouble? Maybe she had to change her approach. Perhaps this student needed a firmer hand.
She had taught the lioness to hunt. That was a breeze. The lioness had eagerly taken her roll in the upper echelon of the food chain and proved to be fierce and determined; a real role model. She raised her cubs to be the same. There was no deviation. Nature needed to work this way, and the lioness was an excellent student.
In fact, the whole class up until now had been rather easy to teach. The zebra had learned to run, the rabbit to burrow, the bird to fly. Trees and flowers learned to open up their beautiful and bountiful flowers to draw bees…bees that in turn learned to pollinate and colonize. The plants resisted only enough to keep thriving to offer more. The whole process worked very well, the earth was evolving and the teachings of Mother Nature made it so.
But this one student, what a conundrum! He was mankind, and defied every law of nature. He would not follow the rules at all. He was arrogant and greedy, with no self discipline. He had learned to hunt, but not to hunt only what he needed. He always wanted more, and even when more wasn’t enough he still wanted more! Sure, he hunted to eat, as did many other creatures. But mankind also hunted for the personal thrill of killing. For bragging rights. She didn’t teach that!
Mother Nature tried to reason with him. She explained nature had a balance, and the way mankind chose to live was upsetting it.
He didn’t care. What a foolish creature!
If only mankind were as easy to teach as the wind. The wind obliged when she taught it to blow soft and gentle. It obeyed when she taught it to sometimes storm. The rain fell as it should, the rivers flowed, and the seasons came and went as instructed. There had been no resistance from them. The grass did not groan about having to feed so many mouths. The mouse did not bicker about being the smallest and most hunted. Everyone and everything had its place.
But mankind chose to stand out of place. He wanted it all, and no matter how kindly she tried to teach him, he was not learning. He didn’t see a reason not to strip an animal from its skin when he could make a coat out of fibres. Why did he thirst for blood beyond necessity? Why did he kill the shark just for the fin? Didn’t he see that it was wrong? Why did he wish to gather more than he needed, only to let it rot and waste? Why did he dirty the water and the air? Mother Nature did not comprehend.
He was the only student yet to earn a passing grade, and she wasn’t sure what to do. She’d never failed a student before. Tears of frustration came to her eyes, for she knew if he didn’t learn, that eventually this whole program would fall apart. It wouldn’t happen all at once, but it would happen.
Then all of her hard work would be undone. The harmony she taught would be forgotten, and this small bit of life struggling to survive in this vast universe would become empty and still. That would be a shame.
Her student…mankind…still a young species and so very determined not to concede. He desired more territory and more possessions than needed to live a rewarding life. He passed this desire onto his children. He killed to amass and possess. And even though he had the capacity and intelligence of mind to share, he often did not. In this way he was no different from the animals with their small and simple minds. They had to fight and sometimes kill for territory, food and even mates. It was a balance that would perpetuate a future for their young. But mankind had a different brain, and should be capable of so much more. He should protect. But if anything he was the most obtuse.
She had tried a few methods that were so far unsuccessful. Violent storms that tore apart his unnecessary structures only drove him to build bigger, stronger structures. He raped the land to no end to build these things. She tried disease to cull his overcrowding, but he found ways to recover and prevent it. Having more than was needed for survival drove mankind to flourish to a point where her graduates could no longer maintain any status. They weakened in numbers and some of them disappeared altogether.
How Mother Nature cried over these losses. Sure, things were meant to change and some to disappear. But to be abolished in this horrible way! Would mankind ever learn?
She studied her student, mulling over her next plan of action. She had no good ideas, no study roster to guide her in this difficult task. She had used most of her tricks and nearly all of her patience. But she’d never given up on a student, and there was still a little time...