Let’s get it together—A play by Yuichiro T.

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(A man visible on the screen. He is in his 40s, a suit and tie, his hair is neatly set. It is annual environment challenge seminar 2022)

Thank you for coming to the seminar! (self-help guru, MLM-pyramid scheme, he has a head set, audience on screen, 80s-rock like “don’t stop believing”, bait and switch)

Thank you all for coming!? Excited? (Participants cheer. They are not visible. He waves at the screen, asks the participants to settle down.)

and I got a story to tell. I gotta story.
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You know, education is my passion.
I was talking to Nazo chan, one of my students, who is a busy Japanese school girl.
She likes to sleep and eat, she is busy going to school, sings at a choir, reads comic books, plays smart phone games sometimes. Very good girl.
I do talk to her sometimes, not only teaching how to speak English but also discussing various social issues out there.
So I go,
“Global warming?”
N: “Yeah, I have heard.”
__
She has this extremely low voice.
“What do you think—do you think we can do something about it? You know, I really think that everyone should do something about it. And I don’t think that it is not the thing that I, only one person can do anything about. So I’m askin’. As you might have heard, there is a lot going on.”

N: “I don’t watch the news. So you tell me. ”

“Right. Ah-, the earth is warming up and, for instance, a lot of ice on its surface is melting, like Antarctica. ”

N: “Ah-huh, Not that. You just said a lot going on. ”

“Right, so countries have to work together but not doing well. So you know Greta Thumberg. The girl. But she doesn’t get supported from powerful people, unfortunately. Like that. What do you think?”

N: “huh. Antarctica, you said. Can everyone go there and see what’s going on?”

“ah-, probably not.”

N: “There. I think that everyone should just go there and see things. ”

“I see your point. Ah-- If you are—, do you want to visit there though, if you get a chance?”

N: “I could.”
-
She said, “Everyone”
I kept on thinking. It is not ridiculous what she said.
Because there is something that almost everyone is currently doing. Like vaccination.
Why not doing something for the Global warming?
Because the Global warming, is not painful enough.
It is not painful enough. Do you know what I mean—am I bleeding to death? to make us call an ambulance because of the Global warming?

Oh, I remember, Nazo chan said this too:
"If the global warming suddenly appeared and snatched our money, we would be flipped. Like, at ATM, “Hi, I’m the Global warming, and I am taking your money. Hahaha….”"
Damn, no wonder we don’t take it seriously.

However, she, Nazo chan, said that if everyone can WITNESS what is happening, it might give us a chance to turn things around.
That is the key right there. You see, on COVID, you’ve been checking your body temperature everyday.
and you know you are alright. PCR, checked, you know you are alright.
It is the same for Global warming!
Strom, everyone.
It’s terrible to see all the storms happening around the world.
You have seen them. (pause)
and question to you is, what do you want to do for that?
What do you want to do, because there is tragedy out there, and yes, you want to make it better. You want to do good for your life, don’t you? don’t you? (pause)

“Get it together”. You know what, check this out.
“Let’s get it together!”
This is it. “Let’s get it together!”
“Whether times are good & bad and happy & sad”
Thank you, Al Green! we gotta theme song too!
We gotta slogan, theme song, fantastic marketing strategy. and what’s next? Actions.

(finally, slowly pulls out a wrist watch from a pocket, quietly)
I just want you all to take a look at this.
It is called "Doomsday watch". It is brand-new, just released.
And interestingly, it says, 100 seconds.
100 seconds left for me.
And you.
And all of us. (wink)
(Beat)

Oh please calm down.
Y'all gotta believe, this is a great thing. Let’s look at the bright side.
This could be the best thing happening to us!
I will tell you 3 reasons:

First of all, yes, as you can see, this could be considered as a time bomb.
Because if we screw it up, uuuu, well, we surely are gonna lose some time and detonate it.
We gotta “get it together”.
(Beat)

That’s right, you have seen this before.
There are tons of wonderful examples available.
Mission impossible, Matrix, 007, yes, now you happily become one of Tom Cruise, Keanu Reeves, and even better, James Bond in reality!
This is like our dream come true.
We finally figure out the use of these 80s action movies and act accordingly.
You can clearly see what you need, but from my point of view, we need muscles, a bit of marshal arts, a beautiful lady sidekick…
oh, but I will just leave the rest for you to go about.

Second of all, this doomsday watch is our last chance to spice up our lives. 
That’s right, we have the detonator, which might go off any minute.
This guarantees that we can change our behavior, our daily activities, forever.
Because this Doomsday watch, makes us think global.
Apple watch and all those smart watch can only let you think about one person, you.
Knowing how you are doing, how healthy you are—that’s important.
I have nothing against that.
You see it that your pulse is beating super fast today, you go,
“oh I shouldn’t have had triple shots of espresso at starbucks this morning, maybe americano better tomorrow”
Or you see that you made only 1000 steps total today,
“oh I gotta go home and run. No spam rice balls for me today!”
On the other hand, this doomsday watch, it now says 100 seconds,
but you wake up in the morning next day and it says 99 seconds left.
and you say, “ohhh what the hell did I do yesterday? Was that me having barbeque with charcoal? Was that me tossing a piece of plastic bag out on the river? Maybe I shouldn’t drive my damn car to Costco to get a dozen muffin.”
But a day after, 101 second remains.
“ohhhh, I knew my biking helped and having only lettuce for dinner did this. Thank you, thank you”. (DJ horn)

Finally, because it is a wrist watch, we can clearly see what time it is.
It is just the time we have left.
Don’t you wanna live life like feeling a heartbeat every single minute?
I knew that you like these horns. (DJ horn)
You don’t need the horns or BGM or none of those things, if you have this watch.
(Beat)

What a wonderful feeling! This is survival.
And as you can see, we might as well start thinking about how to increase the minute.
There we go the 80s movie time that we gotta investigate.
And Nazo chan said this:

N: "(overly excited)Ever since that I got the doomsday watch, my life has gotten much better and brighter! I really feel that like, like, I'm on and I love every minute of it! "

And y'all too, I know you love every minute of it.
and “Let’s get it together”.

(music in, lights fade, blackout)
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written by Yuichiro T.  (2021)