A Conversation with Mother Nature

By Cary Bayer

Characters: Man, Woman, Gaia (Mother Nature)

Man: You have the world’s attention. What do you want?

Gaia: What you want.

Man: We’re tired of isolation.  

Gaia: You isolated your heart from your brothers and sisters for millennia.

Woman: We want our lives back.

Gaia: So do I, but you want more.

Woman: That’s right. We want to be with those we love. 

Gaia: So do I, but so much of what I love you’ve damaged or killed.

Woman: We want to live a natural life again.

Gaia: A natural life! You wouldn’t know nature if you ran her over.

Man: That’s not true.

Gaia: You already have run her over.

Man: Sorry?

Gaia: If you were truly sorry you wouldn’t run over and destroy the natural world. You’re created to live in harmony with Nature.

Man: We’re smart, we have nothing to learn.

Gaia: If you were so smart you wouldn’t poison the air you breathe. 

Man: It’s just a side-effect of industry, which makes the world better.

Gaia: You can make goods using good energy like solar and wind.

Man: Wind can cause cancer.

Gaia: That’s a lie. You’re a short-sighted slaughterer. 

Man: What do you mean?

Gaia: If you have to ask the question you won’t understand the answer.

Man: Which is?

Gaia: You don’t deserve the Creation you were given. If I hadn’t interrupted your marauding you’d have destroyed everything. Now that you’re sheltered and not driving the air is cleaner. People in L.A. can see my beautiful mountains again, in India they can see my gorgeous Himalayas. 

Man: You’re the killer. You sent dangerous climate change and a deadly virus.

Gaia: Responses to your actions. Your wise men taught you that as you sow so shall you reap. You caused climate change, which I returned as weird weather patterns. You play games with carbon. You care about dollars and euros not the air you breathe to stay alive. The virus is a response to the death you’ve caused.

Man: You’re ripping mothers from children, husbands from wives to die alone on ventilators.

Gaia: Good.

Woman: Good?

Gaia: Good that you’re finally speaking with compassion.

Man: I write best-selling songs about love.

Gaia: How dare you speak of love when you’re on a murderous rampage!

Man: You keep projecting your killing onto me.

Gaia: It’s what I had to do to get you to stop.

Man: Stop what?

Gaia: Your destruction.

Man: Of what?

Gaia: Of everything you touch with your greedy hands. Of everything you see with your half-crazed eyes. My adorable dodo bird, my TasManian tiger, my wonderful wooly mammoth…they’re all gone at your hand.

Woman: (PAUSE) I’m truly sorry. 

Gaia: Not as sorry as them or me. So Many other children threatened for extinction…elephants, orangutans, gorillas.

Woman: You speak like we’re hazardous to life.

Gaia: You are. Now, your healers wear hazmat suits to treat you.

Woman: So what do you want from us?

Gaia: I want you….I need you to wake up and care for our planet. The oceans, rivers, and rainforests…they’re not mine, they’re ours. I need for you to stop trying to conquer me, learn to live cooperatively.

Woman: (LONG PAUSE) I can do that.

Gaia: I know you can. You’re made in the Almighty’s image. But will you?

Woman: I will. 

Gaia: I’m glad you will. I’m not trying to scare you. Religions have done that for way too long. But awe is wonderful. Like the awe your brothers and sisters once felt for my thunder, rainstorms, hurricanes. 

Man: I’m not a prehistoric Man to fall to my knees when it thunders.

Gaia: That’s not needed. Just understand the power of Nature is vast, like Her love. 

Man: I’d like to feel that love.

Gaia: All you have to do is realize that the next beat of the heart in your chest is my gift. The next breath into your lungs is not your doing. It’s mine…because I love you. 

Man: I never thought of it that way.

Gaia: There are Many things you never thought of. That’s why I’ve given you this time sheltered to think about things. I don’t ask for anything except to do what you’re here to do: care for the planet as you care for your children and those you love. Love me and care for the Earth, and a wonderful renaissance like none the earth has ever seen can dawn. Bigger, better, and longer than the one you’ve read about.

Man & Woman: I’d like that renaissance.

Gaia: I would, too. I have your attention, and now I have your commitment. I’ll send your doctors inspirations to find a vaccine. They won’t know where it came from—they’ll think they did it themselves. I don’t leave my card.  But you’ll know.