The cold air blew all over my face. I thought about what had happened in her life.
The wars between India and Pakistan, Syria and Jordon, South and North America, why are they being fought? Our sense of belonging to a particular caste, race, country culture, religion makes us so negligent to the possible consequences that we are unable to see that we are fathoming our own doom.
“Give me my toy back!”
“Please, can I see it?”
“No its mine, it belongs to me!” Even as kids we’ve always had a sense of what’s mine and what’s yours but never what’s ours. Whether it’s a toy or it’s a country, what’s mine will be mine.
As a child growing up in Iraq in the year 3020, wars were a part of our life. The century-old war between Iraq and Baghdad had started when my great-grandmother was alive. Wars have become a household word, but WHEN WILL THEY STOP?
Wars, wars, and wars that’s all it is! I feel fighting for belonging doesn’t make sense! It just damages everything being fought for - rivers, land, mountains, cities and our opportunities. Schools in Iraq have stopped functioning so mum homeschools me. I miss having fun with Isiah and Ryan. They moved away because of the war while we stayed in our homeland with the hope of a better tomorrow. Other children got to run around and scream in the courtyard, while I was bottled up in my house listening to the dead hum of the drones. The television, my only source to the world was running with the latest broadcast.
“Stop the war, free Iraq” I screamed. What does it matter if a piece of land belongs to Iraq or it belongs to Baghdad? My mother and I were tired of being prisoners of war for it was still going on. After waiting for 4 years I decided I wanted to be a socialist and try to free our people from the bonds of belonging in the hope of returning childhood to the future generations. The war had been going on for over 20 years and after several UN meetings, it still hadn’t stopped.
My phone rang, I picked it up, it was dad. “Hello? Dad I’m kind off busy right now.” I paused for a second, listening to him, the moment I heard him say the words I dropped down in the middle of the crowd.
I ran to the cathedral, it couldn’t be true, until I saw her body there. My mom always wanted to see the country, the world free from wars and her death gave me even more motivation to follow my dream, to free the world from the bonds of belonging. My mother’s words flashed “One day I’m going to sink in and belong to the fireflies. It's up to you to be the change”