142 Past vs present
“Students, this is a rock painting made by our ancestors and we have been preserving it ever since with several others, ” A man who was wearing a dress that was similar to what the make teachers were wearing but with a complicated design was talking sign about the several rock arts that they had been seeing on the way.
The rock art made on the rocks were abstract paintings that were painted in a time that no one could tell in a single time frame. It was red in colour and the creativity style was simple yet meaningful.
“Sir, when were these paintings made?” A student who was a history geek got excited seeing that art and asked the question.
“Well, all of these rock arts are from the prehistoric era,” The man with a long grey beard said with a smile. He liked intelligent questions for sure.
“What is the prehistoric era?” Another student asked.
“It is the era before written records,” The first student who asked the question replied to his classmate. “In simple words, the era before the era of history. History is when we have written records and you can guess what I mean.”
The man who was showing them the art laughed. “Yes, prehistory is the time period before history. Can you see what the painter wants to show us in his painting?”
All of the students looked at the painting and began deciphering its meaning.
“It’s a simple painting about hunting and how prehistoric humans used to protect them from wild animals, “It was An Xiulan who answered. “There is a drawing of fire which means this painting was made after the discovery of fire.”
“Very nice,” The man said with a delightful look on his face. “What’s your name child?”
“Good sir, my name is An Xiulan,” An Xiulan bowed her head like she used to do in her previous life before meeting someone of higher status.
“Your answer is accurate. You have seen the village so far, what do you think of it?” The man asked while stroking his beard.
“I like the village. Life is so simple here. I like how the villagers here are preserving human history when we fail to and for that people here had to make so many sacrifices for that,” An Xiulan shared her views. ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
“Ah, what sacrifices?” Lu Xuan asked. “I can see that life is pretty similar to how normal villagers live. They all live in these kinds of houses that are not made of cement and bricks like ours. Moreover, they are so stupid to live in those old houses. Why should they bear hardship when the world has so many comforts to offer?”
“Exactly, it’s stupid to live like a prehistoric man in the modern world,” another student sided with Lu Xuan.
“Sir, we are not saying that your village is bad, we just don’t understand why you should live like this? This is not a normal way to live,” A girl looked up meekly and said this.
“No, the life here is not similar to the life of other villages of China, “An Xiulan argued. ” Which villagers don’t have a connection to electricity or the internet in today’s time? I am sure there must be a few where it’s not easy for the government to take wires of electricity. But that’s because it’s difficult for the government, but people here are abstaining from getting connections to electricity or similar things. The whole village is like an iconic site that needs to be preserved as it is. One day, we people will be so extra modern and urban that we will forget how our ancestors lived. If someone is willing to be a living memory for all of us, we as a whole must protect it, not destroy it.”
“This is a utopian concept, it’s not possible in real life,” Song Xueyun said. “It might look good on paper that there is a village-like that lives this particular way. But what about the time when you have no option but to take the help of modern means? Modernity which is synonymous with the era of science in the current world is a necessary evil.”
The man with the long gray beard didn’t say anything but waited for An Xiulan to retort as he believed that she would have a better answer to give. He wasn’t hurt by this argument. In fact, he was glad that the children were questioned. How would they learn the ways of the world if they don’t ask questions?
“First of all, we have the meaning of science all wrong. Your words are hinting at science only existing in the modern world? The people of the ancient era were living without science?” An Xiulan replied as she looked at all of them. “Science exists in all eras. Also, why is living like these villagers a utopian concept? A hundred years ago, when we didn’t have electricity and the internet, didn’t people survive too?”
“I understand what you are saying but what if someone gets a big disease that they can’t cure with your herbs and powders, what about then? ” Song Xueyun asked.
“Traditional Chinese Medicine has cures for almost every medicine and when western medicine wasn’t practised people used to take the aid of the former, ” An Xiulan replied. “Although medicine of that era wasn’t that advanced like it is, I won’t say that modern medicine has a cure for all diseases. Remember the virus of two years ago that killed lots of people? We still don’t have an exact cure for that. Even people who got vaccines got infected again. And we still don’t have a cure for cancer. Although, this life had its shortcomings but so do ours. We can’t say our lifestyle is better than theirs. We both are miserable and happy equally.”
“Both sides are right, our life has lots of shortcomings, ” The old man finally said. “However, this is how we want to live. But it doesn’t mean we hate the modern lifestyle. We take help from it from time to time. We teach you, people, a lot and they teach us a lot. We help them in their medical research and they help us when our people fall sick which is rare because our diet is different and healthier from yours which might be the reason why we get fewer diseases. However, both sides are incomplete without each other. Past and present work together to make a better future.”
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A/N: Have you ever noticed how hard we always are on our past? Whether it’s our past self or past past. We are always blaming our past. Have we ever been thankful to ancient times that provided us with what we have today? I noticed I always say how I would have died if I was born a hundred years from now. We forgot how people used to live that life and who knows many are still living that life.
Moral of the story, let’s not be hard on our past and be thankful to it for whatever it has given us.