The Tears of Gaia

Gaia, the Spirit of the Earth, debates with her sister, Diana, who embodies the Moon. The topic of discussion, as it ever is and always shall be, is humanity.

“Humans have been multiplying endlessly since their humble beginnings, taking up room, wiping out other species, acting as though the entire world is theirs and theirs alone.” Gaia moaned to her celestial sister.

“Surely something can be done about them?” Diana replied.

“Nothing at all! I’ve tried famine, flood, and fire. I’ve tried to cull them time and time again. Even with their own propensity towards warfare, which I’ve tried to curtail, still they keep on breeding!” Gaia threw up her hands in frustration. This caused several earthquakes in various locations around the globe, killing millions. By the time the death toll had been properly calculated by the people of the world, twice as many humans drew breath as before. This gives some indication as to the rapidity of their breeding.

“They breed like rabbits, or mice!” Diana observed from her place high above the world.

“Truly, sister, they are a plague!” Gaia insisted. “Soon they will begin to spread to other worlds… I hear rumblings that they are eyeing our neighbours.”

Diana looked towards Mars, pretending to be aloof and distant. Every now and then he snuck a glance to see whether Gaia or Diana were watching.

“The worst part is that they keep making up these ridiculous belief systems. The currently dominant ones state that only a Man and a Woman should ever become one being, and then only to create more. The last thing we need is more of them, or they’ll spread throughout the galaxy and overrun all the beauty of nature, as they have right here.” Gaia complained once again.

“That is how they evolved, though,” Diana interjected. “How can you put a stop to that? Is it even possible?”

“I don’t know.” Gaia sobbed. Tears flowed, generating rain upon the surface of the Earth.

Diana simply watched in silence. Then in amazement.

The tears of Gaia fell as rain, and a rainbow appeared once the Goddess was done. She smiled, then, a grin that split open a gigantic canyon on the surface of the world.

“I know, I’ll make some of them attracted to their own. Men and men shall become one, women shall be one with women.” Gaia’s idea made Diana sit up and pay closer attention.

“Sister, you don’t have to do that. Your tears have done so already, look!” Diana reflected the image that she spied upon the surface of the Earth, of two men embracing. The couple were summarily executed for their desires, because of the dominant belief system in their land, but more men embraced other men. Women embraced women.

Diana noted a further effect, men wanted to live their lives as women, and women as men. This was deemed equally unacceptable by the dominant belief systems, but as the humans evolved so, too, did their beliefs. In time they ceased murdering one another because of whom they loved; the lives they lived. All humanity considered themselves equal, with none more or less important than any other.

“Perhaps, sister, there is a chance for change after all!” Gaia exulted.

Diana, after having experienced several humans recently walking upon her surface, felt elation. Who knows, they may not spread as the pair had feared.

“Perhaps, should they continue to breed and spread out, they might learn more? Perhaps they might not be such a blight?” Diana wondered, while examining the debris that a few simple humans had left behind themselves as they had explored her lunar surface.

“In time, all things are possible. They will need to leave their belief systems behind, however. There is no room in the Universe for their petty gods. Nor for their bigotry and hatred of anything different.” Diana pointed out. “These are things that humanity will have to let go…”