Previously on the last episode:
In Htrea, people are raised on the idea of learning and knowledge. "Wait
a minute you might say. Aren't people on Earth raised to read, write
and go to school?" True. Everything you just said is true, but let me
finish. People are raised on the idea of learning and knowledge through
the incentive of money. You can also argue that introducing money to
children at such a small age might give them the notion of greed as
well. However, I argue aren't there just as many if not more greedy
people today than in the past? The way people in Htrea raise their
children on money is done so carefully and meticulously, so as to
prevent the idea of greed from tainting the children's hearts. Every now
and then, I must admit, some children do end up growing up as the spawn
of greed.
And from this day forward, Dante was born into the world of Htrea. He was quite a healthy baby weighing roughly 7 pounds. His mother was a painter and his father was a musician. Both parents were remarkable in the arts and showed great promise when they were first given tasks in kindergarten. There's no surprise, that the parents would want Dante to follow in their footsteps.
Therefore, as soon as Dante brought home from the hospital, the father played some of his composed music throughout the house whenever possible and the mom painted in front of Dante whenever he was not crying, sleeping or eating. Life went on like this for about 4 years until Dante was old enough to go to preschool.
It was then when his life took a quite interesting turn. A turn not even his parents expected. At preschool he could not sleep during nap time. In fact, it seemed like he was never tired. While other children were napping, he spent his time talking. The teachers at the preschool became concerned at first and thought maybe Dante was diagnosed with some type of mental illness. However, when they listened closer and questioned Dante about it, he simply said he was creating dialogue with himself based on the conversations he held on each day. The teachers became intrigued and asked why he would need to do such a thing. His answer was, "Different people say different stuff about different things. I want to know what makes one person say something different from another person." Mind you, this was a 4 year old child saying these things. In essence, Dante was curious about the human mind and the motivations of people.
The reason he became so intrigued on the concept of dialogue was due to one interaction in preschool. On one afternoon, Dante and two other children were coloring. As two of the children reached for the same blue crayon, they immediately locked eyes and began to glare at each other. However, before shouting would ensue, Dante managed to speak and ask what each of them wanted to use the crayon for. The girl replied she wanted to use the blue for tears because blue always reminded her of something sad. The boy on the other hand said he wanted to use blue to color the ocean because blue always reminded him of the sea and it always calmed him. Although this may be children talking about a random drawing and color, Dante was intrigued. He then proceeded to tell them to take turns with crayons since both their reasons were valid.
From that day forward, Dante was always conscious of the things people said. The teachers continued to notice this and always answered his questions regarding people's different point of views. However, every answer was different and there wasn't a single universal answer to explain why people thought differently from others. It was always, "He's doing this because he likes dogs more than cats" or "she likes this color so she only dresses in that color." Dante thought to himself that if all humans were of the same race then shouldn't all humans be the same?
Could it be that because we all have the same basic features that make up a human we seek to differentiate ourselves from others? Is the desire to be unique an intrinsic trait or did humans develop that as time went on. Again, this was a 4 year old thinking these thoughts. Of course, he was not thinking this deeply as he was still 4 and he could not possibly communicate this to others.
Instead, the way he came about this thought was when he was in a park with his parents one day. He saw 3 identical dogs of the same breed. Two of them were male and one female. From just looking at them physically, he could not discern one from the other. It wasn't until he heard the owner call them by names did the dogs become different. This was how he thought humankind evolved. Everyone started the same, but because of separation and the formation of tribes, kingdoms, and civilizations did people naturally become to differentiate.
Every night Dante lay in bed awake thinking about this. Thoughts of life and philosophy crossed his minds before he even knew what those words meant. It was when kindergarten started did life become much clearer to him...
To be Continued...
