Week 7 Story: The World's Largest Grain of Rice Display at The Museum of Lasts

"Hello everyone, and welcome to the Museum of Lasts, where we have exhibits of every 'last"' thing of the world! My name is Sara and I will be your tour guide today. Couple museum rules to go over: first, please stay close by so you can hear everything being talked about; and second, feel free to ask any questions you have. With that, let the tour begin – follow me!"

"The Museum of Lasts opened about one year ago today, in 3020, and we're the only place in the world like this – for good reason, there's only one last of everything, and we're extremely lucky to get them all!" 

"The very first piece we received for donation and actually for the first display we set up in the museum you'll see here on your right – an ancient artifact from the year 2020 and the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. While masks used to be plentiful, as the years went on and COVID-19 was eliminated, masks were no longer used in the general public."

"Moving along, you'll see the very last newspaper that was ever published in print. In today's world, as you all know, books and printed materials have seized to exist, so we're very fortunate to have the last printed edition of The New York Times on our hands. Feel free to read the headlines from 2050 as you walk by!

"And now, here's one of the coolest pieces I think we have on display – the world's largest grain of rice. Looks different than rice now, doesn't it? Oh, yes, you, with your hand up in the back, do you have a question?"

"Uhm, yes! Why is it the world's largest grain of rice? Why is it so big?"

"Excellent question! Back in ancient times, legend has it that rice used to be this big – big enough that it would be all you would be able to eat for one day to be satisfied. You know now how rice has to be harvested? Back then, when the rice was ready to be harvested, it would pluck itself up out of the ground and roll into town for the people to eat. But, one year, the rice was SO plentiful that the town ran out of room, and the people became angry at the rice for taking over the town. One angry village woman stomped on a piece of rice, breaking it into hundreds of tiny pieces, and that's why we have small sized grains of rice today. Did that answer your question?"

"Yes, thank you!"

"And with that, we've made it to the end of our tour! Feel free to roam around, visit the gift shop or come talk to me about anything! I'll stick around to answer any questions you all may have. Thank you for coming and have a great rest of your day!"

Picture of an art museum display

(Taken by Dannie Jing on Unsplash)

Author's note: This story was based off of a story in the Folklore of Laos unit called "The Legend of the Rice" that talks about the origin story of how race came to be how it is. The story was simple, like how I described it above, about how back "when all things were better than they are now" grains of rice used to be HUGE, big enough to fill one person up for a whole day. When the rice was ready, it would harvest itself and roll into town to be stored and eaten. One year, the granaries were overflowing because of the abundant rice, so the people of the town decided to tear down the old granaries and build new ones. Before the new ones were completed, the rice harvested itself, rolling into town with nowhere else to go. One village woman was very angry at the rice, and she stomped on one, crushing it into many pieces, asking it why it couldn't have waited in the field for the granaries to be complete. The rice understood and told the people it would return to the field and wait to be harvested from then on. For this story, I wanted to play on the huge grains of rice aspect as being something rare and worth being put in a museum over as the "last" one out there, being displayed in a museum I created called "The Museum of Lasts." I wanted the story to be a narrative, coming from me, the tour guide. The story is set 100 years in the future, as I play on modern aspects now being "artifacts" found in the museum like masks and newspapers. I hope this story was entertaining – I can't wait to hear your feedback!

"The Legend of the Rice," Laos Folk-Lore by Katherine Neville Fleeson