I’m a big fan of allegorical storytelling as a way of passing on truthful information memorably.  My husband and I were talking recently about how the current economic situation in our country is akin to the very rich stealing all of the food out of a large garden that was supposed to feed everyone.  Now there are a very few who have far too much while millions have far too little.  My mind instantly began spinning a tale about a Garden of Life under threat by greedy, evil forces.  I even worked in climate change and the upcoming Election.

The pillaging of the Garden of Life represents an existential threat to our entire society.  We cannot function if four entire generations of millions of people are at risk of homelessness or slavery due to the greed, hubris, and malice of a few thousand.  The cycle of life represented by what we leave for our children has deliberately been broken.  The Garden is empty for them, leaving many to scratch out an existence on the streets and even more languishing at home with their parents when they should be starting their own lives.  If evil sits in the seat of rulership, the Garden will stay empty, and there will be no future.  I offer my tale now as a fable of warning and hope.

Once upon a time, humans lived as One with each other and with the Earth and Her creatures.  They took care of each other and cultivated a way of life that ensured everyone had what they needed, both in the present and into the future.  Part of this way was the Garden of Life, tended by everyone to provide what was necessary.  It was well known that wise care of the Garden meant following guidelines that would not deplete the Garden for future generations, what was called “stealing from the children”.  The Elders emphasized that it was important to only take “enough” and never more than that.

The Elders said that a Garden is a never-ending circle of life.  A plant grows from a seedling, which grows from a seed, which comes from a parent plant, which comes from its own seedling, and so on.  This cycle stretches on into the future, ensuring nourishment as long as the Garden is properly tended from seed to plant to compost and back to seed again.  In this way, humans thrived for thousands of years.  We would not be here if that cycle were disrupted at any point in history.

For many years, humans lived in this harmonious way, tending the Garden year by year, always ensuring that it was cared for in such a way as to continuously give forth so that no one went without.  Some years the yield of The Garden was low, but sometimes the Garden was so bountiful that future generations enjoyed a better life than those who went before them.

Then the Machines came.  Great, iron beasts chewing through the countryside and belching fire into the sky, owned by men who cared only for the gold the Machines could make them.  A great economic system rose up in the wake of the Machines and took over the Earth, changing how everyone conducted their affairs and emphasizing always having “more” instead of “enough”.

This mindset began to poison the humans caring for the Garden.  They saw the abundant wealth of the Garden and wanted it for themselves.  They set about secretly and quietly taking possession of the Garden so no one would notice what was happening to it.  Meanwhile, new generations were born that were too young to care for the Garden, let alone understand that it was in danger.  The greedy humans now in charge of the Garden lied to the younger generations about the future abundance of the Garden to get them to work harder, increasing the Garden’s output and giving them yet more gold.

In the meantime, the Machines had induced a cataclysm of global proportions, heating up the Sky and the Sea with their fires and smoke, threatening the entire Garden and all of the humans that relied upon it.  People began to notice that the Garden was in danger and that it was being depleted by forces of greed taking more than they really needed, leaving people without.  The younger generations found that the Garden no longer contained “enough” for them to live as their parents had because it had been pillaged by those who wanted “more”, and the land salted so it would no longer give forth life.

And so it came to be that there were six generations alive at one time, but only two living in comfort because they had “stolen from the children” of the other four.  Horrific suffering filled the streets of the cities as they were overrun by people who no longer had a place to live or food to eat or even a place to go to the bathroom.  People with differing ideas regarding “enough” and “more” argued about how to handle the issues of the depleted Garden and the heating Sky and Sea.

In the midst of this Earthly chaos rose an evil figure from the forces of greed, bent on imposing a horrid vision of control over the people that would take all power away from almost everyone and destroy every measure of true goodness in society.  They and their followers did not care about the dying Garden, nor about the suffering humans sleeping in the streets.  All they cared about was punishing people they didn’t like, preferably while gaining more gold.

The people banded together in the face of this greed and evil threatening the Garden, the Earth, and their very lives.  A figure of justice arose from the side of goodness, galvanizing the spirit of the people, which had been flagging in the face of so much suffering.  People spoke of hope and victory about the coming clash between these two forces.

Over the months before this clash, the lies from the side of evil flew fiercely, but to no avail.  No one was listening anymore except those who already believed the lies, a group  that was shrinking.  The evil figurehead did their best to attack their rival, but they were unbesmirched.  The march of justice could not be stopped.  Still, the pillaging of the Garden continued, as did the suffering of the people.

Finally the appointed day arrived, and the two rivals faced off as the people made their choice for who would rule the Garden, one of the last powers they had collectively that had not been taken away from them.  People waited for hours upon hours in rain, snow, and hot sun to lodge their choice across the entire land, then went home to wait and watch to see who would prevail.

Slowly the numbers trickled in over the night, and with joy the people discovered that one state after another had chosen justice, enough to ensure that its evil challenger would have no choice but to go fearfully skittering into obscurity, stripped of what remained of their power.  Their supporters reacted with anger, but not with violence as so many had feared.

The new leader of true justice began their work not long after their face-off with evil.  They wasted no time in setting about the task of saving what was left of the Garden and easing the suffering of the people.  Many good and just laws were put back into place that had been scuttled over many decades by the greedy owners of the Machines and their friends so they could pillage the Garden, and new laws written to make sure such a terrible crime could never happen again.

Slowly the Garden regrew with much love and care by the leaders and the people, and as it regrew, the Machines also began to be dismantled, allowing the Sky and the Sea to cool.  People were re-educated in the old ways of “enough” instead of “more”, and the suffering people on the streets began to be given food, homes, and jobs with much help from the newly compassionate leaders.  People began to care for one another again as they had so long ago, and together they swore that the Garden would never be plundered again.

Make it so, and so mote it be.