We have no name for the people who came before us.
Some call them “The Builders;” others, “The Destroyers.”
Stories told in ceremony and song, but no definitive history.
There were many, many of them, and everywhere they went they marked the land with roads and bridges.
Many of the elders ponder how they did all this, made these lines straighter than any tree and harder than any stone, but not me.
I see their marks on the land like whipping-scars, their broken houses scattered across every hillside, their still-poison valleys where no man can live and I wonder why.
Dear Josh,
All we need to do is look around us to know why. Your haunting story leaves soul hollow and wanting. Well done.
Shalom,
Rochelle
Thanks, Rochelle. I was thinking about Neil’s future challenge and Nevil Shute’s On the Beach came to mind, as well as Stephen Vincent Benet’s By the Waters of Babylon. And the song Little Boxes ;-)
You left me wanting to read more -much more. I loved your take on the picture.
Thanks!
You had me hooked from the first line
Thanks!
Looks like our thoughts went the same way this week, your protagonist could be a descendant of mine. Great, haunting descriptions, it could well be that future generations see us that way.
Looking at the wreck we’ve made of this planet in the past seventy years makes me wonder about the wisdom (or even possibility) of descendants. Thanks for your comment.
So true. We’ve had the wrecking attitude for much longer I think, only not the means for totlal destruction that we have now.
Very nihilistic take. Liked the story Hardy. Makes me want to know more.
Thanks Neel
A powerful image to look upon.
You made great use of a picture that left me blank. Well done.
A powerful read. Well done.
I love the way you contrast the multitude who ask how, with the wiser individual who asks why. A powerful story, Josh.
Thanks Penny
A great piece of writing…I often wonder how the future will remove the scars we inflict on planet earth, you have given me on answer.
Thanks!
I like that we have no name for them… the why and how of those who came before.
Nicely done, Sir.
Both very apt names for us.
I say Destroyers…. If there is such a thing as history, I don’t know how they will portray us…
Great story! :) Reminds me of the Classical Mythology lecture series I’m listening to at the moment.
What’s good to one person is destruction to another. Nice job.
To build something you need to break something. True broken and ravaged constructions stand like an ugly sore. It seems inevitable.
Every society throughout history has left its own whipping scars for those who come later to ponder. This was extremely well done.
Thanks
We all talk about global warming, fossil fuels and use of plastics but not much has been said that the world is running out of sand. 50 billion tons of sand mined every year. Twice the amount produced by every river in the world. After air and water, sand is our most used natural resource. We use it even more than oil. The major sand usage is making concrete.
There is destruction happening around us right now and we are blind to it.
I like the format of someone from the future looking back at the now and getting their perspective. It’s not much for humankind, which is not surprising. Our taint will be here long after we’re gone.
Why is a much better question to ask than how. Fantastic story. Great voice.
It would be nice to think your foresight is wrong, and that humanity will come to its senses in time.
Truly foretelling what now seems likely to be the inevitable, nicely done
A note from the future to our present selves. Both builders and destroyers – that’s humanity in a nutshell. Well written dystopia, Josh