[BSG] How the World Began :: PG :: Gen :: 1/1
Title: How the World Began
Author: chaletian
Fandom: BSG
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Daybreak II
Summary: A teacher tells a story about how the world began.
In a remote village in Nigeria, a school teacher called Mercy Ogunbanjo tells a story to the children in the class.
“One day, long time ago, this land was empty of people. No boy or girl, just animals and wide open sky. It was empty because this land was special, because God was saving it for special people. They come from far away, fly on birds in the sky, and they leave their homes behind to find this land. They journey far, and fight many battles against the men who are one-but-many, but the girl with yellow hair like the sun brings them here, and these people are mother and father to every one of us.” Mercy’s voice is sure and steady; she has told this story many times. All the children know it.
At the back of the school room, two WHO volunteers stand and listen.
Later in the day, one of them asks Mercy, “Do you believe it?”
She looks at them, and shrugs. “These are not stories to believe or not believe,” she says. “They are who we are.” She returns to her class.
“I heard a story like that once, in Mexico,” says the volunteer.
“It’s that kind of story, isn’t it?” says the other. “It’s the sort of thing anthropologists study.”
They’re right. There are anthropologists who study the stories about the creation of humanity. They consider philosophical principles, like whether humans have a need to understand the world around them. They look at population shifts and waves of migration. They look at language and changing cultures and the development of oral myth from a single seed of fact.
They never consider that it might all be true.
FIN
Author: chaletian
Fandom: BSG
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Daybreak II
Summary: A teacher tells a story about how the world began.
In a remote village in Nigeria, a school teacher called Mercy Ogunbanjo tells a story to the children in the class.
“One day, long time ago, this land was empty of people. No boy or girl, just animals and wide open sky. It was empty because this land was special, because God was saving it for special people. They come from far away, fly on birds in the sky, and they leave their homes behind to find this land. They journey far, and fight many battles against the men who are one-but-many, but the girl with yellow hair like the sun brings them here, and these people are mother and father to every one of us.” Mercy’s voice is sure and steady; she has told this story many times. All the children know it.
At the back of the school room, two WHO volunteers stand and listen.
Later in the day, one of them asks Mercy, “Do you believe it?”
She looks at them, and shrugs. “These are not stories to believe or not believe,” she says. “They are who we are.” She returns to her class.
“I heard a story like that once, in Mexico,” says the volunteer.
“It’s that kind of story, isn’t it?” says the other. “It’s the sort of thing anthropologists study.”
They’re right. There are anthropologists who study the stories about the creation of humanity. They consider philosophical principles, like whether humans have a need to understand the world around them. They look at population shifts and waves of migration. They look at language and changing cultures and the development of oral myth from a single seed of fact.
They never consider that it might all be true.
FIN