Every Man's Greed

• Aafreen Chauhan, Grade 9, Aitken College
• Short Story
• 2015

Excellence Award in the 'Read Write Repeat 2015' competition

Simplicity. That's what this modern world is missing. Everything is complicated, everything has a variable, everything is planned. I remember in my time we did things because we enjoyed doing it. I have seen the world go by, I've seen the world change, I've seen it make it self more complicated than it should. I've seen kids make situation far more dramatised than they should, I've heard then wishing for the dark hole to come and swallow them whole. The dark hole, I've not Been there once but twice and survived, you would think it I'd be happy but no, once you you go through that hole you can can never come back even if you survive. I lost everything.. In my time there was room to make mistakes, now you make one mistake you would feel like the walls in the rooms would close in and squish you to a pulp. And the main problem; people take love for granted, they think it's common, they think it's not important. No wonder that most marriages now days don't last. They don't realise that all living things need love, including us; humans. Funny thing is, there are people who think that love is just a waste of time, they don't need it, but you can love other things other than just people.This generation there is no verbal communication, they don't fall in love with someone's voice, they're infatuated with their smartphones, which is very good at hiding ones emotions. They think if you 'love' someone you have to commit to them forever and agree it every wrong thing they do. You know Rick Warren was right, this culture is born with two huge lies. The first is that if you disagree with someone's lifestyle, you must fear or hate them. The second is that to love someone means you agree with everything they believe or do. Both are nonsense. War is nonsense.

I lost everything because of war. Everything.Why do we have to fight and sacrifice our selves just because our leaders can't come to an agreement. If they are not good at comprising and bringing peace why are they our leaders?
From the beginning of your boot camp training we were taught,
"We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and the streets. We shall never surrender!!"
And now I realised who are we fighting for. We were fighting more for our leaders than our country. We, soldiers were dying so our leaders to gain power. But I guess in order to stop war, we have to become something other than humans. Because it's humans who crave power, who crave the need to be appreciated, who crave the need to be above all others. We are always thirsty for greed and power. Especially our leaders. They are used to attention and control over their country. Once they feel that control is slipping out of their hands, they choose the easy way to get it back...War/fight. It's the older men that declare war, but you know it's is us, the youth that have to fight.Always.Earth provides enough to satisfy every mans need, but not very mans greed. - Mahatma Ghandi

If only they new of real love!