About Dave and Linda and Adjusting
Post 1135:
I bet every generation says that they’re living in new strange times. Most of them have been wrong. At the very least, those people that came and went did so with an inflated sense that the world was changing. It’s a natural human inclination. Not narcissistic. Well, maybe a little.
What past generations am I referring to? Let’s simplify and say most of them. For example, Dave from Mesopotamia a thousand years ago and Linda from Ireland four hundred years ago had mostly the same day. Get up, work the land or the shop, try to make a dent, try not to get sick and die, try to make sure your kids get to do the same thing. Church or the Synagogue or the Mosque once or twice a week. A highlight, by the way, because at least it was a respite from looking after sheep or tilling the soil.
Dave and Linda had basically the same technology and access to information. Medicine was pretty much crap and the only way to get around was to walk, board a rickety ship, or sit on top of an animal and say go.
So what about now? We’re the same species as Dave and Linda, but things are wildly different. Most of us don’t tend sheep or till the soil. Is it possible to say that these are new and strange times and actually be right? While I fear playing the narcissist, it would seem so.
And so we have to adjust. To all the information and the sounds and the hectic nature of everyday and everything and everybody. We have to take these strange times in stride and not be swallowed up by them, remembering that we’re still Dave and Linda.
My first instinct is to say that the world is too new and fast for the human brain to keep up with, that it’s not possible to adjust. But then I say to myself that those people that came before had bigger problems, like adjusting to having no food in winter or having the neighboring tribe invading with big swords.
That’s some serious adjusting. Figuring out this new app on my Iphone—not so much. But seriously, why won’t it open?
Shout out to Dave and Linda. Cheers and see you after.
