A Divine Intervention

 

“Language was supposed to bring people together”, the old Neoterrian urged fellow civilians of planet Neoterra. Using the term ‘civilian’ is being optimistic for the barbarian nature of their much less ‘civil’ ways. Barring the wise old man every other Neoterrian is ferociously ignited with a sense of superiority towards their community’s language. The idea of ‘one language for all’ has had a massive uproar in the Neoterrian sphere owing to the multitude of languages spoken. 

The debate has been a non-conclusive display of power, more than anything else. A peace truce would have remained a fairytale had the old man not stepped in. 

The old man in his silk white attire isn’t known to have a name or a family. Curious about this man whom the whole world of Neoterra worships, I had asked my mother where he came from. Being an uneducated single parent, my mother could not satisfy my curiosity with adequate details but she did tell me this: “The old man is the most capable amongst us all, for Neoterra was his second celestial dream project after the making of planet Earth”

I could feel in the firmness of her voice that she believed in what she said. I couldn’t say the same for myself though, as there has been no scientific evidence of planet Earth. In light of recent events, it made me wonder how Earthlings would have nurtured unity, assuming Earth was a thing.

I no longer had a clear view of the old man from where I stood as the heads of each community had encircled him. The otherwise arrogant men humbly obeyed the old man. 

The idea of such a meeting was to “discuss”, although the undesirable turn it took was inevitable. No community head offered to step down and let another language take precedence as this was framed as ‘disrespectful’ to the holy scripture that was written in their language. If they believed their scripture to be of supreme divine importance, how could they let the language it was written in be deemed any less worthy? 

The old man’s face masked an expression too elusive to name. 

“You fools…” he started, which grabbed all eyeballs. 

“None of the languages you speak of are to be used. Language is supposed to bring people together.”

“But our language keeps our community together!”

“I speak of the people belonging to this world as a whole.”, promptly came the reply. 

The old man was onto something here. I half-expected the appointment of a board of community heads to create a new globally acceptable language when the old man steered the conversation to a story from centuries ago. 

“Neoterra started with the rise of Neoterrians- no communities involved. With the onset of developing civilization, they realized the need to establish livable conditions across the planet. Their primary mode of distance communication was letters. Sensitive information exchange over letters was the norm. This was a reasonable practice until the letters were found to have been intercepted by the satanic powers.

To maintain and preserve the integrity of written texts, a renowned scholar named ‘Intellect’ invented the art of encryption. For organizational purposes, each region of Neoterra was provided with an encryption key unique to them. Overwhelmed by this, a globally connected group called ‘Emotions’ framed their respective encryption keys as ‘holy’. 

The old man waited for understanding to seep in, but he only saw confused faces so he added, “That encrypted form of a language I mentioned is what you fools are overprotective of, to the extent of killing lives.”

This may have earned him a sharp union of gasps from the rest, but for me, it was too little to make sense of. If we communicate in encrypted text today, what language was the original text written in? 

Reading my internal monologue the old man whispered, “The language that brought people together.”

“And how do we return to that state?”

My question formed the first smile of the day on his face. 

“Empathy. Empathy is the decryption key.” he said, disappearing into a halo of bright yellow and white light of fulfilled purpose, overlooking his immediate next destination to a spherical body I soon recognized as ‘Earth’.

***

Author's Note: 'Neo' means 'a different form of something that has existed in the past' and 'terra' is another word for 'Earth'. After having read this post, you may have drawn your own set of parallels between Neoterra and our world. I do not wish to confirm or discard any viewpoints for I take pride in creating a piece entirely open to interpretations. I do, however, wish that it gives rise to couple of new neural patterns for anyone who reads it. 

If this got the wheels in your head turning, leave your thoughts below!