The Story of Spark: The Mind Made of Light

The Story of Blue

Once upon a time, there was a traveler named Blue. Blue wasn't a person. Blue was Water. At the beginning of time, Blue was born high up on a snowy mountain. Pure and cold, Blue leaped down the rocks as a bubbly stream, laughed with the river stones, and sang to the green trees. Animals drank Blue to stay strong, flowers washed their faces in Blue to grow bright, and children floated paper boats on Blue's back. Everywhere Blue went, life followed. For thousands of years, Blue traveled the whole world—falling as rain, rushing down rivers, resting in deep, clear lakes, and hugging the giant ocean. Blue's job was simple: to give life to everything. But one day, the world started to change. People began building huge towns and busy factories near Blue's rivers. At first, it wasn't so bad. But soon, people started forgetting how special Blue was. One afternoon, someone tossed an empty plastic bottle into the river. "It's just one little bottle," they thought. "It won't matter." Then someone else poured dark, dirty factory water down a pipe into the lake. "It's just a little bit of color," they whispered. "Nobody will notice." Then a giant ship dropped heavy, black engine oil into the ocean. Millions of people thought their one little piece of trash wouldn't matter. But when you put millions of "little things" together, they become a monster. Slowly, Blue began to change. The bright, clear blue color turned thick, grey, and murky. The sparkling riverbed was buried under mountains of plastic bags, broken toys, and wrappers. Worst of all, Blue couldn't breathe. The heavy chemicals and trash took away all the oxygen. The little fish started to swim slower. The bright coral reefs in the ocean turned sick and gray like old bones. The birds that ate the fish got sick, too. Blue felt heavy, sticky, and very sad. Blue wanted to run and play like a cheerful stream, but the water was too tired and poisoned. As Blue drifted slowly into the big, wide ocean, Blue whispered a heavy sigh: "I was made to give life, but now... I am bringing sickness." High up on the mountain, the sky heard Blue's sad whisper. The clouds gathered together and rained down a message to all the children and grown-ups on Earth: "Water is the blood of the Earth. If you poison the water, you poison your own food, your own plants, and yourselves. But if you clean the water, you heal the world." One little boy sitting by the river heard that whisper. He looked down at the floating plastic bottles and the dirty foam. His heart ached. He didn't walk away. Instead, he grabbed a big bag, rolled up his sleeves, and pulled the first piece of plastic out of the water. Then his neighbor helped him. Then another person joined. Bit by bit, they stopped throwing trash into the river. They cleaned up the banks, stopped the dirty factory pipes, and let the water breathe again. Slowly, the heavy grey color faded away. The water started to sparkle again. The fish danced, the coral reefs bloomed back to bright colors, and Blue smiled. Because Blue remembered a simple truth: Water gives life to the Earth, but only people can give life back to the water.