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A conclave of angels in the heavens was keenly observing visions- so starkly opposing to the holiness of their gathering- from a distant galaxy displayed before them in a 3-D form.
Chew. Crunch. Swallow. The collective noise of a group of people trillions of light years away, eating voraciously, reverberated in the meeting room. The leader of the angels explained the rudely shocking images of an alien species to the sacred chorus.
"It is a nation fond of eating. They constitute man-eaters, land-eaters, and eaters of everything and anything that grows between the sky and earth. Dozens of them would turn in on a weakling of their own kind and eat him too if there was nothing else to eat." All the angels gasped at this.
The leader continued, "Even if there were something else to eat, they would still do so merely for a change of taste, and, out of habit," the leader anticipated the audience's query and answered beforehand, "No, they are not savages, or cannibals. They,” he paused as dramatically as his station could allow, “are the gluttons."
A chatter of voices broke. "The gluttons?" "We have not heard of them before!"
The head angel plunged into a brief history of the hitherto unfamiliar species, "When earth was depleted gradually due to climate change, constant wars and breakdown of Civilization, mankind regressed into a degraded species.” A note of sadness crept into his voice, some yearning for an age gone by, but still remembered endearingly, a shadow of the original Adam alive in his memory, perhaps.
“The earthlings adapted themselves to survive on the meanest resources. Sometimes, these gluttons would even eat part of themselves to hasten death or to pass time or simply because they are bored.” The atmosphere inside the meeting room became stuffy at this.
“Some of them also drink the blood of fellow gluttons,” the leader continued in a sad voice, ignoring the consternation visible on his fellows’ faces. “One may deprive another of his rights, and thus, squeeze life-blood out of him. The powerful mince and slice all those whom they can. Religious ones sacrifice belief on the altar of money. Knowledgeable ones manipulate knowledge for paltry returns. Businessmen build empires on living skulls. Such is the fattening diet of this avaricious species."
There was great unrest among the gathered angels.
"Such depravity!" "Heart breaking." "Callousness."
"But why is this being brought to our attention?"
"Yes. What are we supposed to do?"
The leader cleared his throat and continued cautiously, "Our team has been tasked to..." He could not carry on.
"Crush them?" supplied one of them.
"We don't want anything to do with violence."
"Besides, our team's specialty is not combat."
"Yeah. We're meant for guiding and assisting the needy."
"Yes. And this lot looks like it needs the assistance of combat angels, not reformist ones like us!"
The leader flapped his wings and everyone fell silent. "The warring angels have inflicted natural calamities on them, but they haven't amended their ways. Therefore, our team has been tasked to reform them."
Suddenly, the meeting room was abuzz with protests and grumbling.
"Reform these...these stains on humanity?"
This time the leader not only had to flap his wings, but also charge sparks of light through the length of his translucent, venous wings to bring the room to order.
"The hearts of mankind are corrupted with greed. That is why they prey upon nature and their fellows. They have ruined the balance of the cosmos. Even so, there is a chance for them. Where punishment has failed to move them, compassion and love may change their hearts. Our mission is to fly down to this ruinous place and breathe our spirits of light into their clay forms. The result may be a terrific change in behavior".
“You’ll have us fly there on a ‘may be’?” a young angel retorted smilingly.
“Some hopes are stronger than certainty.”
Skeptical though they were, the team members got ready and flew downwards to perform their duty amidst the hell let loose on earth by its foolish inhabitants.
When light got mixed with dust, a subtle change aroused deep within the breasts of the clay forms. It was not overnight, but it happened. They began to abhor what had been their normal and struggled to find alternatives. First, a group of revolutionary laborers, peasants and students challenged the dietary patterns and switched their diet to vegan and dairy, claiming that they felt guilty and pained by consuming their own kind. Seeing a sizable portion of the population demanding change, large corporations and governments thought it necessary to introduce reforms. And, so they began to transform existing practices of harmful consumption of food. Earth was slowly freeing itself of gluttonous desires and their consequences.
The world did not become a paradise. Neither can it be one. But deep- stirring compassion and sincere efforts of a few humans were enough to light up the globe like stars amidst the dark and somber, silken skies. The host of angels, having done their task so discreetly and swiftly, also, began to marvel at these strange creatures called humans who could descend lower than the lowliest being or soar higher than the highest seraph
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