The network

It is the year 2040    
War, hunger and death rule the earth    
There are too many of us    
For an increasingly smaller earth we can live on    
And instead of banding together    
It brings out the worst in us    
   
That is when they come from the skies    
The first alien race ever to visit earth    
They see us    
They see themselves in us    
How they have been in the past    
And before they leave    
They give us something    
   
They give us the network    
   
The network spreads to all mankind    
And suddenly    
The soldier can not fire his gun anymore    
The CEO can not order his people to be laid of purely for the sake of profit    
The people can not walk past the beggars anymore who really want nothing more than something to eat for themselves and their children  
   
And we begin to help each other    
To do what we can for each other    
It is not perfect    
But it is so much better than before    
   
But what is this gift they give us?    
What is the network?    
   
The network is something that connects all mankind on an emotional level    
It REALLY connects us    
Not like social media    
Not like the internet    
It connects our hearts    
   
And suddenly we all feel the same    
We feel the average of what everyone on earth is feeling    
And so helping someone feel better    
Helps ourselves feel better    
And we can not hurt anymore    
In the cruel ways that have become so normalized    
   
And you may ask what right do they have to force this upon us?    
But what right do our leaders have?    
Our CEOs?    
Or government officials?    
Or managers?    
Or people in our private lives?    
   
It is not a question of right    
It is a question of survival    
Many of us will not survive this century if we remain as divided as we are    
We MUST grow together    
We will never have something like the network    
Not in reality    
   
But stories can inspire us to be better    
That’s why I wrote this one    
Compassion for each other    
Empathy, not only for our loved ones, but for the world  
Only to the extent we can bear it  
No more, but also no less  
   
This is the only thing that can save us    
We can all do something to contribute    
However small it may seem  
   
We don’t have to become altruists  
We don’t have to give everything away  
   
But we can all give as much as we can without destroying ourselves and our own joy  
   
We can build the network
   
Together