Pondering our past - and future in Country Museum Parks
August 18th 2007 10:29
Pondering the past
But there is nothing romantic about not having anywhere to be treated for a broken leg. There is nothing romantic about being crushed between a goods train and a timber log or several falling wheat bags. There is nothing romantic about being thrown from a flighty horse or being lost in the bush. There is nothing virtuous about slaving over a wood fire on a hot day in an iron hut. And what child would enjoy learning in a classroom that had cold wind whistling through the cracks all winter. These stories hold the attention of tourists and locals alike when they make the obligatory visit to the museum park.
air conditioned classroom
Perhaps we visit these places because deep down we know we don’t live in a vacuum. Are we trying to get into the mind of those of the past, in the hope that they had the answer to the meaning of life? What happened to our parents and our grandparents shaped their attitudes and their values, and these have been passed on to us – whether we liked it or not.
If that is the case - what will be the thoughts for those who, in the future, stand in front of a restored plasma TV screen, DVD player or mock-leather furniture or when children climb all over a tractor with satellite tracking devices? Will they be wondering what we were thinking – what were our values and priorities. Will the future generations be bemoaning the fact that we did not make the most of the technology we had? Will they conclude that we must have been unhappy because we were so insular in our lifestyles and spent so little time doing things with others in the community? Will they wonder why, with so many ways of communicating, we still didn’t really understand our neighbours? Will they be looking at the waste we created and be cursing us for how we had it so good and ruined the environment for them?
We can be sure that how we lived our days right now will be studied and scrutinized and probably judged even more harshly than we view the past. And what our attitudes, values and priorities are today will somehow rub off on the children of today and tomorrow.
So the question still needs to be asked. “Are you and I making the world a better place?” Or will all we leave behind be rusting cars, mercury leaking light globes and toxic plastic waste dumps. I hope we can do better than that. As the old hymn says “You in your small corner and I in mine.”
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