SWAMPY TALES

One of the listeners to my radio dramas asked how I manage to imagine things that usually make sense. Deliberately, I did not answer him. Instead, I led him to imagine a situation that involved our grandfathers. "If your ancestor who lived around 1900 resurrected today, would he rejoice or lament about your way of life?" "Of course, if he is like mine, he would find his village desolate. How quickly everyone deserted the once-upon-a-time beautiful village knit by kinship would strike him. He would see that the soil is the same while the rivers have become distant. The swamp that barricaded his village has dried up. He would note the same bare open space with no trees. He would wait to see some animals wandering around but will find none. Those birds he used to prey on would have significantly diminished. He would expect the rainy season to have ended by April but would find it raining in July. "He would take a walk into the nearby villages. No one would recogn