Raphael stepped onto the grime covered road and began his daily trek toward the coal mines. A ubiquitous layer of soot blanketed his clothes and another layer of soot imbedded itself in his pale skin, despite hopeless efforts to scrub it off. Across the road, a young child, four or five, doubled over and began coughing, his lungs strangled by the omnipresent haze of coal dust that surrounded the town. His mother’s eyes, wet with grief but dull with defeat, expressed the painful reality that nothing could help her innocent son. Raphael grimaced as he witnessed this sight, but trudged on.

Fatal pollution was the ominous fate of this small town, as coal mining was the only profitable industry to sustain the hundreds of families. The soil was barren of nutrients for agriculture and the rivers were empty of fish. Colors never shined brightly, as they were always discolored and blurred by the pollution. Young men like Raphael were sucked into the deadly mines to support their families.

Why, Raphael hopelessly pondered, did this town have to suffer this predicament? The citizens were kind and gentle and the leaders made annual sacrifices to the gods, yet every day, dozens of workers died from a plethora of diseases due to the toxic coal dust, and hundreds of young children entered hospitals because they struggled to breathe. As Raphael trailed off in his mindless train of thought, he suddenly remembered the wisdom that his grandmother imparted on him before she passed away: determine your own destiny in life, don’t wait until destiny comes to you.

Raphael instantly realized that working in the mines was not his destiny. Raphael sadly had no family to support anymore. The remaining members of his family passed away a long time ago from this cursed pollution. Struck by this spark of hope, Raphael resolved to seek a town and a future that would not also be a death sentence. A shadow of a smile passed over Raphael’s face as he began his new trek.