“I want to go up the mountain!”
“No, you really don’t.”
“You can’t keep treating me like a child!”
“I can if that’s how you’re acting.”
“You still haven’t given me a good reason why I shouldn’t go up.”
“She is up there. That is all the reason there needs to be.”
“That’s not a reason. Those stories aren’t even real.”
“It doesn’t matter how real the stories are. She is there and we will not disturb her.”
“Listen to yourself! You’re scared of a story.”
“There is more to the story than just Her.”
“And what is that?”
“Why did she stop?”
“You know the story.”
“Why did she stop giving gold to the poor?”
“I can’t believe you’re asking—“
“Why?”
“Because the people got greedy. They dug up her garden because a ginger root from her turned into gold.”
“Why did she stop?”
“Like I said, they got greedy, what does this have to do with—“
“Why did she stop!?”
“….”
“Because we failed her. Because we failed the mountain. There is more to Her story than simple human greed, because greed isn’t simple. It finds the most brilliant solutions to take until there’s nothing left. Her story reminds us that the mountain wants for nothing. It will give until we decide to take more than we can hold.”
“I just want to see the summit—“
“And what then? Take a few pictures? Post it online so that people can see?”
“Yes, but—“
“How long will it take until people decide to follow your lead and go up the mountain themselves? How long until their feet trample on the earth and the grass? Until they take what was never theirs?”
“…..”
“I treat you like a child because you haven’t learned her lesson.”
“That we failed her?”
“That we failed the mountain.”
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Written by Karl Gaverza
Copyright © Karl Gaverza
Inspired by Mariang Makiling in Philippine Folk Literature: The Legends. Eugenio. 2002.
Mariang Makiling Illustration by Laura Katigbak
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