Early Arrivals; There Goes the Neighborhood
I stand by the belief that humans are born with nurturing habits. For this reason, I tell this story...
Iv'e been sitting for hours upon hours at the shoreline as soft quick sand binds its way between my toes and small seashells beneath it. My old wooden stick I use as a weapon for catching fish is beside me. I concentrate on the sun descending upon the fiery horizon converging with the clear turquoise waters. Being the attentive and vigilant person that I am, I notice a small moving object nevertheless smaller than one to be of the ocean. I realized not long after, that this contrivance was a boat. Though,a prominent figure of great extravagance standing to what looks to be 100 feet tall and 100 feet wide. Looked to be a few boats of innumerable folk that could never compare to our small rafts used for hunting, gathering and trading. Suddenly, the subtle boat seemed no longer small. It headed straight for our land.
I anxiously ran til' no energy remained down to my tiny village. I explained to the chief of the situation. He brought me along with his few men back down to shore.
Once at shore, we noticed these people weren't of our kind. Where could they have come from and what is their purpose? They certainly weren't here to harm, showing not to be armed nor aggressive. They also were not inhabitants of neighboring islands. One particular man, possibly ruled as chief, came up to us and offered up some of their finest treasures such as red caps made from fine blue, red and white cotton, strings of beads and trifles. In return we offered up our strings of beads and hawk bells. It dawned on us, what kind folk they seemed to be!...
I'm going to stop here and save the few minor details. When Christopher Columbus comes to the Americas I can only assume that the Natives knew this was going to be a big change. The Natives knew they wanted nothing to do with the Europeans and for this reason weren't to be trusted.They destroyed or took hold of land, enslaved and manipulated. They took hold of anything they thought was easy to take.
This relates to the present day society because many people apply this concept of "There Goes the Neighborhood" to their own complications of sorts. Some others are caused by the accusations and oppressions linked from few things like racism, gender, and sexuality. These are things we can easily fix if our communities come together and work as a team to accept trying new, and unexplained things that typically no one would ever think of going near.
loved the story!! did you write it?
ReplyDeleteInteresting choice to use a story at the beginning. I enjoyed your story (great use of description). I think for the Natives, maybe not only the big change that was coming, but also the fact that an outsider was coming fueled their need to be kind and hospitable. Maybe it even had something to with their religion (in Greek culture, any one could be a god so it was necessary to treat everyone with the up most kindness and respect). Good Job!
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