It was a sunny day of Summer, the birds were singing, cherries were ripening and everyone was enjoying the joviality and beauty of nature. In a park, the majestic trees were brushed by the gentile breeze while three children were playing underneath.
The park was a refuge for all beings, everyone was in harmony there, the animals, the humans, everyone. The kids were playing with a tin can which they found in the park when an idea struck into their head “Let’s begin to collect tin cans and other metal trash and go to the scrap yard with it!”. They thought that they’ll make some easy money out of this, while also doing something good for nature. They planned this in a period of days, they would go and collect all tin cans and scrap metal in a period of one week and then sell it to the scrap yard for some money. Well, this seemed childish, but they were children, so what did you expect? They wanted to make some easy, quick money.
The three kids went to their family and asked some of them what they thought about the idea. When one kid asked about it from his mother, the mother replied that she wasn’t eager of the idea because why do they need money for? Another child went to his grandpa, who said that they should do it for civic reasons, not for money, and the one lastly went to his dad who said that a little bit of independence doesn’t hurt anyone, besides they were also doing something good. The three kids contemplated the idea and, in the end, came to a decision, to carry out their plan as it was.
All was settled, at the end of the week, the kids met in the same park where the idea came to them and they started collecting the tin cans. They went to all the corners of the park and collected all the things they could find, but then another idea came into their minds, they should go to the city and collect some tin cans from there too.
All said and done so they left for the city. In the city, the kids scoured every possible trash that they could think of, from straight pipes to plastic bottles and cartons. There was filth everywhere and the people weren’t taking action either, the exact opposite, they were accentuating the problem. Every corner they turned, every street they went to there was at least one person who brazenly dropped some rubbish on the ground. This, the kids thought, was a disgrace, ‘Is that how bad society has gotten in the city? ‘One wondered aloud.
All this filth, all the arrogant attitudes, the obscene and scandalous lives that an average person lives in a city was the result of man walking away from nature.
After all the garbage that they had seen in the city, the kids called it a day and went home. The afternoon, the kids went to the fields outside the city to search for the cans, they also heard that the nearest scrap yard was in the next village, around 6 kilometres from where they were. They crossed the creek and started the job. While searching, they found huge piles of trash from campers, so they started searching and filled up three whole black bags with tin cans. Walking up the hill, they found a place where they could squash the tin cans to make more space in their bags. They prepared to go home when they realised that they had enough cans to get some money out of them so they went to that nearest village.
While walking through the field, they encountered one huge hill they had to climb. They hesitated but had to do it for you know, easy money. So they climbed the hill and seeing that they didn’t have enough time left, started running. While running, one of them fell off and hurt his arm but it wasn’t that bad so they continued until they reached a wide field.
While on the field, they could see flowers, plants and a cow which they thought was nice, but the field seemed unending, infinite, they thought they were lost for a moment until they spotted a corn field in front of a ranch. “Well, it doesn’t seem that bad” they thought until the rancher got out of his house and started shouting at them “HEY! YOU, COME HERE!” The kid’s were scared but one of them mustered their courage and shouted back “WHAT HAPPENED, SIR?”; “Come here kids” he said waving at them, so they crossed the corn field to the man.
When they reached the man he asked “Did you get lost kids? Need some help?” Well, the kids said that yes, they got lost while searching for tin cans and metal scraps to get them to the scrap yard, to which the old man replies “Good job, kids! But now, don’t you want to come into my garden? I have some good cherries.” The kids entered the garden and there they found three cherry trees, they tasted one cherry each and it was the best cherries that they ever tasted. Then, the old man came to them and said, “Kids, you can take as many as you want. I don’t have a problem with it.” The kids were happy and prepared to leave, while they prepared to go, the old man said, “You know kids, I studied agricultural engineering.”
“When I was young the people were more careful with things. Back then, there wasn’t so much trash on the streets as now. You know, those were some good days back then, more quiet, more beautiful days. But yeah, I’m really proud of you kids, you don’t see so many young people interested in long walks in nature and coming to the village just to collect tin cans, you walked 6 kilometres, you really did a good job.”. The three kids said goodbye and left the old man, at the same time they were shocked. They never saw such a display of goodness from a person in the city, they thought about it while picking up more tin cans from the ground.
They were walking through the village and saw beautiful houses, smiling people that were greeting each other, like from a painting, they saw a real community for the first time. They weren’t familiar with this behaviour, in the city everyone minds his or her business even though they greet each other from time to time you can’t feel the spirit of a community. Everyone is so atomised, not caring about each other, not even about themselves. Well, the village wasn’t like that, the kids felt for the first time that your neighbour is really your friend.
The kids walked a long way and they realized that there wasn’t much time left so they had to get home immediately. They went through the same fields from which they came. While on the fields they admired the sunset and the nature around them, it was like a dream, the thing is that it wasn’t. But one thing they could say is that this day was the best day that they had ever lived in their lives. But what about the tin cans and the scrap yard? Well, they sold the tin cans to the scrap yard but they only got two dollars out of those bags, but it wasn’t all for nothing. Because, if it wasn’t for their idea they would never have had such a beautiful day.
