Literary (Submission): Who will ring the bell to our freedom?
“If you close your eyes for a moment and focus on the hustle around you, would you realize that the people have lost something important?”
“Hey, let’s keep the silence. Maybe, you will start to listen to yourself and also the people around you.”
“Oh… I wish.”
As these voices continue to speak to me, I wonder more and more about the world around us.
Imagine that there was a bell somewhere on the Earth that could be heard by everyone. A large bell whose sound could easily be understood by everyone in the world, would you want to ring it? A bell whose ring would resonate with your feelings? The bell’s ring would be so useful right now, especially when people are about to break loose and fight to the death. Nowadays, it is really so hard to advise people with words. It’s like they wouldn’t even understand a single thing since they are so selfishly absorbed in trying to get to the top.
Some say the bell exists. God would have to ring it since he’s the only one who could see the bell. But is there really a God? I haven’t met him and if he were to exist I’m sure he would have rung it multiple times by now, every time people would fight, but nothing has changed one bit. This fighting of the adults has left us, young people, confused. If there’s truly a bell somewhere in this world, it would have been rung by someone close to it by now.
It feels like everyone is competing to reach that bell that probably doesn’t exist. The bell that has many stories we have heard of but never know which one that speaks the truth. Some want to ring that bell so that they can rule over everyone and have almost everything. Some may want to ring it because they want a god to hear them, while I, myself, just want to ring it to free the youth from the cycle of having to stop dreaming once they grow up. It feels like I don’t care what other people believe in, I mean, we are all humans trying to survive in this world that we messed up. Is equality still possible for us?
“Amidst everything. You still want to reach out to someone. Isn’t that right?”
“Surely, someone out there is an ally who is concerned about you.”
These thoughts don’t seem to stop. However, there must be an ally somewhere who shares the same thoughts as me.
Ringing the bell sure looks like a heavy responsibility. You’re making a choice for the whole world and won’t know the outcome until after the bell is rung. Almost everyone who dreamed of ringing it has given up since they couldn’t bear the burden that comes with it. I wonder about those selfish people who are trying to climb the mountain just so that they can ring the bell, have they fallen down? It’s like the childish dreams we used to believe in, dreams that soon disappear as we grow older.
Why hasn’t it rung yet? Is there even a bell in the first place? I’m tired of waiting for this war to end. If only someone yelled out something that could be understood by everyone, it would end. We’ve grown tired of the adults fighting to the point that the only thing we can do now is sit in silence, watching them as they carelessly yell and hurt each other. Some wanted to join in the fight, some wanted to keep quiet and pray for it to end, while I just wanted everyone to understand each other, no matter the difference.
In the middle of everything, I closed my eyes and silently listened to the hustle around me. A lot of unneeded noise, more shouting and the everyday chatter. Peace isn’t still achieved just yet, there’s still a long way to go before we can call it a peaceful world.
If there is a god, I should have met him.
It doesn’t matter, right? If I meet him or not, I think He too is praying for one of us to ring it.
“The question is, who will ring the bell to our freedom?”
“Ah… that, I don’t know.”
Maybe if I had more hope, everything would be fine... Maybe it has been right in front of me all along.
