Tracing our roots

When I first saw the theme of this week-tracing our roots. I somehow came up with a kind of animal. It’s a kind of fish called salmon which I got to know through Animal World, the TV program. Salmons live in the sea. However, every time when they are going to give birth to baby salmons, they somehow spare no efforts to swim back to the river they were born. The way back is definitely tough: possibility of dying exhausted, high risk of becoming the food of bears or birds passing by. Some of them even get their skin burst and become red all over their body. There is a river in Canada; every year when the time comes, the whole river turns red and just looks like a river of blood. In the end, very few salmons can reach their destination, falling in love with someone, getting married and giving birth to their children. Actually, not only salmons, many animals, including penguins, some birds, butterflies, even whales do so.

I feel it seems that these animals are trying to talk some sense to us. Every time when new life comes out, tracing is needed. What about us human beings? It is obvious that we have lost the instinct of returning to our hometown to give birth. But I think something is left in our mind, in our thought. I remember that a writer once said that we put forward all the questions for whole life when we are young and spend the rest of our life finding the answers. I think it is very much similar to the animals’ behavior of tracing their roots. When I chat with my friends, almost of us like to share something about our past. And every time when I do so, I can gain some new feelings about life. Even my big brother He Yu, such a tough guy, frequently writes articles about things happened in his past and the lessons he has learnt from them. When we trace our roots in memory, it’s kind of rebirth, isn’t it? I think we should go back to our past often and in this way, we actually understand life better.

When we look into the river salmons swim by, we are sure to find the reflections of ourselves.