The White-chinned Thrush feeds on a frog.

Jonathan and Mark, his son, went to the beach to have a father/son moment in the midst of nature. The boy was excited, so he reached the sands before his father. When Jonathan joined him, he realised Mark was transfixed. He refused to go farther. He held his father's hand and said, "Daddy, let's turn back, this place is dead!"

Jonathan said, "Yes, but not yet." He was not ready to return to the noise of city life. They spent a few minutes collecting shells before they left the beach, the squalor, garbage, mangrove swamps turned cesspools, dirty, brownish sea full of dead weeds, mongrel dogs, mosquito-infested pools of water beside shacks, and two naked children who used the sand as an outdoor toilet.

run to the river

Halfway down a lane, lined by stagnant water, mark started to run, to run away from the dead beach. And, his father whispered, "Run, Mark, run, because time is running out, and when tomorrow comes, there might not be anything left on this earth, we will all be dead. On this earth, where you live, something serious is happening, something that is threatening our very existence; pollution."

Mark ran to a river, stripping his clothes off as he did, but when he reached, the river was dry. He rushed to another; there was water in this one, dirty, still water. On his way back, it was so hot and humid, he decided to go to the forests to shelter from the heat. The forest was gone, man and acid rain had killed the trees, and the animals who once sheltered within are now extinct. He was sad for he loved animals. In his anger, he went to the North Pole to cool out. The ice was melting and sea levels rising.

But mark pressed on, only to find that the beauty of nature was threatened everywhere. The exotic animals and insects, the metamorphosing butterfly, the majestic mountains, the sun in its fiery splendour, the mystical glow of the moon, the awe of an eclipse, the twinkling mischief of the stars, the sparkling waterfalls, the soothing rush of a river water dashing against rocks, the fury of a storm, the cathartic raindrops, the magic of a rainbow, the profundity of the stillness of a pond, the harshness of the desert, the whisper of the wind, the smiling blue sky, and the fireworks from a volcano, the musical chirping of a bird.

a father's tears

Jonathan was jolted from his reverie by Mark's tug of his hand. He was looking at a graveyard of dead mangrove trees across the road. Tears were streaming down his face. Mark looked up at him and asked, "Why are you crying, Daddy?"

Jonathan caressed his hair and said in a strained voice: "I am crying because I know you are crying. I cry because you are growing up in a world of hatred, bigotry, pain, suffering and environmental degradation. You are growing up on a dying earth and there's not much I can do to stop it."