A Different Melting Pot

The world has reached the state where someone more than ten years old has had no experience outside of the twenty-first century.  Further, it might be safe to say few people would remember much before they reached something like the age of three, if then; but, there’s no need to go back to 1997 or so.  A ten-year-old youngster is more than a small child.  Such are in school in the fourth or fifth grade and are often called “pre-teens.”  They may not know much, but they do know more than home and family.  The thing is, everything they know of life in personal experience has taken place in the twenty-first century. 

As of 1945, overwhelming an opponent with greater fire power ceased to be an ultimately viable approach to disagreements, although it was before then.  It’s still done on a small scale; but, such is no longer a policy that’s acceptable as a way to successfully win anything in an ultimate sense.  Now, there are people in the old folks’ home underfoot who are in their nineties, adults of the “pre-1945” school of thinking where such ideas were okay if not good.  Meanwhile, in some definitions people in their fifties, born well after 1945, are “senior citizens,” and they are of the later attitudes.  There’s a difference in ways of behaving. 

While to date there are two approaches to a way of living, there is a third soon to be upon the senior citizen scene.  It was not too long ago when space travel was fiction and fantasy. Today that’s also part of the real world, and the people with no earlier experience have still a different way of thinking and behaving.  A good many will not make it into the mixture described above; but, they’re close and “older.”  The thing is, none of the above alone directs the attitude of the coming generation that will soon be running things.  And, what it is that will be the attitude may be beyond the comprehension of all others. 

The future can be a sizable mystery.    

Where Did Yesterday Go?

The witching hour comes, preceded by as well as followed by dark of night for it is not the land of the midnight sun.  Dark of night may be pitch black or spotted with faint lights, either natural, man-made or both as circumstances create, but mostly it’s a dark, lightless affair.  And, the earth spins on until sooner or later the part of the earth underfoot starts to again face the sun with the light of day expanding over the horizon.  And, still the earth spins on until, either higher or lower, the sun is directly above in what is the noon hour.  Then the day is half over and, as is known, the earth spins onward to another witching hour.  

Although the first declaration of a time of day set for yours truly is set for 9:00 a.m. (DST), it’s not for anything but an announcement that it is that time as per human convention.  The actual get up and go happens whenever it happens; it can be hours before then or it can be then because the alarm has gone off and made enough noise to cause an awakening.  Then there is a need to carry out “advisable things,” like visiting the bathroom, looking over communications that have arrived and considering what is paramount to maintaining existence. That fits no time frame (it’s been tried).  It just continues as long as possible…. 

It’s well past Sunday noon at this point in time, and there’s no clear recollection of what happened to Saturday. There was no such thing a a proper meal. There were no visitors at the door, entries for here written and no backlog of anything that was cleared out.  In recent days there have been bad headaches; one was of such proportions that much bed rest took precedence over all else. To disturb things further, there was equipment failure and a need to make up for a service failure.  In the end, the clock today prompted the observation, “It’s Sunday … what happened to Saturday?”  Losing days may be of the ways of old age. 

Days vanish fast when there are few.