There will come a day, certainly not to all of us, judging from the way things are going, when our grandchildren would ask us the most difficult question, with the most obvious yet ludicrous answer. They would ask us, “Where were you when it all happened? When the world was ending.” “What were you doing?” The answer to which would be, “I was stuck in the hamster wheel.” “I was struggling to make a living.” A reasonable follow up question would be, “Did it work? Did you end up living?” The answer to which would be, for most of us, a sad and unfortunate “No.” It would be followed by a last and most painful question. “Then why did you keep doing it?” “Why didn’t you do anything about it?” to which there shall be no answer. None which wouldn’t plunge us into an eternity of regret and shame.

See, to our grandchildren, the possible courses of action to stop any of the atrocities taking place in our world today, would be so clear and simple. They would be so obvious. Unless, of course, our grandchildren, like us, would be born into the imprisoning life of the hamster wheel. Then, and only then, would they excuse our inexcusable lack of action. However, judging from the way things are going there will not be any hamster wheels to be stuck in, nor will there be any food dispensaries, water dispensaries, or cages for that matter. There might not even be an earth.

When it comes to earth, the green and blue mother planet, which we are killing at an exponential rate, the solutions would sound so simple and obvious. Our grand Children can simply ask us, “Why didn’t ban plastic bags when you had paper, and biodegradable bags?” “Why didn’t you quit processed and packaged foods, when organic food, and raw foods, were cheaper and healthier?”  “Why didn’t you recycle? When some countries managed to do it so efficiently!” “Why didn’t you just clean the oceans and the lands? You had the time, and tools!” “Why didn’t you stop using fuel based cars when you had electrical metros, cars and bicycles?” “Why didn’t you just plant more trees? They only cost a dollar each!” “Why didn’t you train all the coal workers to work in solar panel farms? It was healthier for them and for the planet!” “Why didn’t you install water efficient fixture, and toilets in your houses? They were already available and affordable!” “Why didn’t you lobby, and vote, and protest the stupid laws?” “Why didn’t you ban the use of cement concrete, when you had cold rolled steel, and foam concrete?” “Why did you not use solar panels for everything?” The answer to all of which would be, “I was stuck in the hamster wheel.”

When it comes to human rights they can ask us many questions, or perhaps none. They might just ask rhetorical questions out of sheer astonishment. “So you knew that Black people, Asian people, Hispanic people, Middle eastern people, and Muslims were persecuted, hunted, and discriminated against, all over the world, even in your own country and you did nothing?!” “You know that minorities were being targeted by the police, and discriminated against by employers?!” “You knew that two million Uighoria Muslims were put in Chinese concentration camps?! Concentration camps?!” “You knew that Rohingya, Chechen, Indian, and Serbian Muslims were being hunted like prey?!” “You knew about the Kurds, and the Yazidis being divided among several countries ruled by different foreign ethnicities?!” “You knew about the Shia minorities?!” “You knew about the Syrian refugees?! The Palestinian refugees?! The Yemeni war, cold, and famine victims?!” “You knew about Josef Koney, and south of Sudan?!” “You knew about Rwanda?! Kosovo?! Bosnia and Herzog?! Brazil?! Mexico?! “Everyone knew?! And did absolutely nothing?!” The answer to all of which would be, “I was stuck in the hamster wheel.”

As for the political situation, our beloved grandchildren will not even have the mind to form rhetorical questions. It would be just a series of barely comprehensible exclamatory statements. “So everyone knew exactly who funded the civil war in Libya?!” “Everyone knew exactly who sponsored the war crimes in Syria?!” “Everyone knew who was sponsoring dictatorships around the Middle East and south Asia?!” “Everyone knew who manipulated the elections in the US?! The US?!” “Everyone knew who was funding and protecting the drug cartel in Mexico, Colombia, Brazil and half of Latin America?!” Everyone knew who toppled which regime, and who sabotaged which democracy?!” Everyone knew who sponsored the civil war in Somalia, the dam in Ethiopia, and the drought in Sudan?!” Everyone knew about the invasion of Hong Kong, Crimea, and the West Bank?!” “Everyone knew about china?! China?!” “What on earth was everyone doing?! What was so important?! What was worth standing by and watching as the world spiraled into a miserable and well-earned death?!” “What was worth standing by and watching so many people suffer so much?!” “How could you just sit there and do nothing when there were so many accessible small solutions?!” “Where were you when the world was waltzing towards the point of no return?!!” The answer to all of which would be, “I was stuck in the hamster wheel.”

The funny thing is that from the inside, the hamster wheel looks like a ladder. The hamster always thinks it is making progress, climbing, getting to a better place, when in reality it is stuck. Some of you might be really climbing ladders and getting places. Most of you, however, are just stuck trying to make a living. Nevertheless, all of us are waltzing towards doom. Ecologically, the point of no return is within less than twenty years. Politically, and socially we are at the verge of collapse within the next few years. There just have been way too many people suffering for way too long, while very few people enjoy way too much. It is time to step away from the wheel and change one routine in your life to save the world. Do this every day, and by the end of the month you will stop being a burden on earth and its inhabitants. Step again away from the wheel, and donate a dollar to someone who needs it somewhere around the world. To someone who is planting a tree, or cleaning the ocean. If enough of us step away from the wheel once or twice a day, we will save the world. I know it sounds so cheesy and cliché coming from me now, but imagine how humiliating and shameful it will sound coming from your grandchildren. If you live to have any, that is.

Image Credit: Lukas Hauser Art