Survival or Not

Some years ago, a friend of mine who happened to be

an anthropologist told me of her time spent living among

the Bushmen of Tanzania on the Serengeti Plains. These

were an ancient nomadic people who lived off the land,

and who at the time were rapidly disappearing due to the

encroachment of civilization and progress.

I am sure by now, some twenty-years later, most of them

if not all have been assimilated into more restricted systems

of modern-day society. My friend was in tears as she relayed

her story of these primitive yet lovely people to me.

The Bushmen were a caring and savvy people who taught

generation after generation of their children how to survive

the sparseness and harshness of their environs on the unfor-

giving savannas of their homeland.

A child of four or five knew which plants were poison and

which were edible in order to survive. At such a tender age,

they were shown where to dig for and find life-sustaining,

fresh water in an otherwise parched and arid land.

It amazes me that in our so-called advanced society today,

many of our inner-city children in the USA, shamefully yet

vitally, realize what it takes to survive the perils of their sur-

roundings in this day and age. Committed to reflexive memory,

they learn to hit the dirt or duck for cover at the sound of

gunfire. And still, far too many innocents do not survive.

We hear their stories, and over and again, we close our eyes.

Begs to question: By which standard or measure shall we consider

ourselves as civilized?

Chris Hanch 1-10-18