Our communities lived by measurements of both good and bad. It was how we learned where the limitations of both existed. It wasn’t the immediate consequences that worried us, but the future unseen ones that we could never predict. And they always came, usually when we least expected.
This is a moment of time with one of those consequences. And this will be the first lesson of this class. Welcome to Sanctuary.
Walking through the town, you would never know that it had ever been a community because of the lines. They are everywhere, and they are almost down to a few feet in width. As an outsider, I marveled at the confusing legacy that came from the flurry of decisions that must have led to this chaos of stops that did literally that.
And as you can see, the lines marked boundaries that each person wasn’t willing to cross over. The tour guide had a cheerful smile on her face, but everyone else in the group was horrified.
Why wouldn’t they just work together? What was so important that no one was willing to bend just a little so that they could live with one another.
The tour guide giggled a little at that comment, Well, as you can see, they couldn’t live together, now could they?
Another person in the group laughed aloud in amazement. Were they all children? Who would be stupid enough not to know what compromise is?
A small girl with adorable pigtails hmphed at the man’s comments. You could tell by the look on her face that she didn’t appreciate the insult. Kids aren’t that stupid. Why do you think they’re always bouncing from game to game? It’s so everyone is happy. Adults don’t like a game and they take away the ball so no one can play. They call it laws, and expect it to be followed without question. But kids have to work together because we’re always being told no like we don’t know anything, and we don’t even us those things. Who’s really the child?
Stomping off to talk with the “children”, it wasn’t long before they all turned to look at the man in disgust. Now that was embarrassing, and he shut up after confronting the tiny but growing storm cloud.
Well, she does have a point, now doesn’t she, sir? Even the guide was aghast at the man’s air of superiority reeking about him in a stench of privilege. Those in charge get to call the shots, and rarely listen to others around them. I guess it comes from thinking that one knows everything there is to know. Once that happens, how is one ever wrong and others ever right?
The crowd shifted uncomfortably at this reminder that maybe they too had done something just like this in the not-too-distant past. But they would never be this shortsighted, would they?
What about the last national election of 2020? Did any of you think to do anything different than you had always done? I would think not! We would not be standing here today with the results that literally tore apart a nation like tissue paper if you had really known what compromising meant for everyone, and not everyone ELSE.
The children all nodded in agreement with the guide. Our teacher taught us about that time in our history just yesterday before our fieldtrip today. She wanted us to understand the consequences of “lines in the sand”. We didn’t think she meant real lines until now. All of the children looked dejectedly towards their parents. Why would you do this to everyone? Why wouldn’t you learn to play well with others like you ALWAYS tell us?
Now the adults shifted away as though they were the cause of all of this. How could they be when it was their ancestors who destroyed hope more than 10 years ago. Ok, so maybe they were the ancestors and not the victims they pretended to be, but they didn’t start this mess. A once proud land was now a pockmarked desert of lines and signs as far as the eye could see. No natural beauty left because no one thought of the importance of it in their own lives. It wasn’t necessary because they had pictures of it to be viewed in the comfort and privacy of your own homestead while they scraped the land for “resources”.
And now they had no nation to call their own because they ripped it apart with their belief systems and for all that glitters.
Now would have been the time when a…I think it’s called a tumbleweed…would roll by in the desolate winds of destruction, but of course there wasn’t anything left to make that tumbleweed. I looked at the children with my own look of sadness, and sure enough my daughter knew what I wanted. With a simple projection from her communication band, a tumbleweed rolled by the larger section of adults who looked on in shock.
I chuckled alone as I stood apart from the rest, much like it had always been. A history teacher wasn’t very important until times like this. Of course, if more of them had been listened to by the masses back in 2017 or 2018, then maybe we wouldn’t all be standing here wondering where it had all gone wrong.
Now if you’ll follow me back to the pods, we’ll move to the next town which…oh, never mind, why don’t we just walk as it’s just around the next block. This is the section of the state which has been the most fragmented because of the know-it-all attitude that turned our beloved state into puzzle pieces that would never fit together again. You’re lucky that we are still at the state level. Wait until we reach the nation level, because that’s where the destruction is simply too large to comprehend. All because adults can’t play well with others!
The town folk have all moved on to the sanctuaries that were so ridiculed back in 2017. Of course, they did have to go through a re-education process, much like this one, before they were allowed to even enter into the sanctuary. In about…hmmm, how long was it, children?…
15 years, teacher. The same amount of time as something called naturalization that we still don’t understand. Were they unnatural before, like aliens or something? Glowing eyes peered at me in wonder at the sheer stupidity of those things called laws.
That’s right children. It was a law which was much like these lines you see all around. When there became too many of them, well, people were painted into corners they couldn’t escape. Soon, they all broke one and were sentenced to expulsion and re-education. It all ended when the last person had to expel himself and the town is now like a ghost town. And there were different pictures to aliens back then.
The teacher continued on at the shame-filled adult faces. Everyone had to take responsibility for their own lack of actions and words that rejected. The world around us is looking at us as the example of what happens when the norm loses touch with nature. The other nations are being forced into their own re-education by the people who are tired of laws with no morals. We are at the dawn of a new point in history that is making a world for all of us together to co-exist. We respect and protect all by actions, not words, so that everything is equal. It’s not easy, but the children are showing us the way. Sanctuary will be something completely different than what it was originally intended to be. We’re all relearning what it truly means to be human, and we have ancient history to thank for showing us a different way to live.
As the teacher, our guide, moved us along the wide dusty road with lines deeply embedded in a maze of contradictions, we shook our heads at how far off the path of good we had traveled. Even the man who knew-it-all seemed unsure of where to go, until his daughter took pity and reached for his hand with a look of love, It’s ok, daddy. I’m here for you!
I smiled at her attitude even in the face of hubris. Yes, that was a good word to teach the children next. The adults would take longer to understand the concept as they still lived it.
Ok, adults, let’s keep up with the children. They are way ahead of you on the growth curve, so you have a lot of catching up to do. And that isn’t even taking into account how long it is taking you to learn the basics.
Especially you, sir! The teacher smiled at the little girl with sweet pigtails who was a little less disgusted with her father now that she held his hand. Don’t worry. She’ll be able to teach you what you obviously don’t understand.
Now what else did the lines do to us?…
