True story: A fellow applied for a hunting license and was told he would have to take a hunter’s safety course first. The fellow said he was a veteran and well-trained in handling guns. Couldn’t he get a waiver? No, said the clerk, because we’re trying to teach you not to kill people.
I’ve been watching the 2008 PBS documentary Carrier — 1 Ship, 5000 Stories, about the people on the aircraft carrier the USS Nimitz. Some of the stories of the sailors, airmen, and marines touched my heart, and I was also impressed at how much the world has changed in the past five years. Some of the crew were ambivalent about their mission to the Middle East, but one thought the U.S. was doing good by being “the babysitter of the world,” and another thought we were bringing peace and democracy to the Middle East. I wonder what they would say now?
What do you think? What changes in the world are you most aware of? Have you had to do any major adapting in the past few years? Ours, of course, was recovering from the fire and the subsequent flash flooding.
Five years ago, India was on the map of the world for its dynamic growth. Today, it is in the doldrums thanks to a totally inept government on its last breath demoralised by corruption and scandals.
I also lost my friend and wife of almost half a century and it has been tough without her. I went through a harrowing time giving care to my father who finally breathed his last last year. So, at the personal level some freedom to do many things that I was not able to with my care giving duties has come as a welcome change and since the last six weeks a daughter in law has lit up our home.
I am in a very different mood than I was a couple of years ago, but that is tempered with the frustration of seeing a great economy in the doldrums.
Unfortunately the term homo sapiens is often an oxymoron — all we have to do is look at politicians. I’m glad your personal life is looking up.
In the U.S. the rich get richer & the poor poorer, yet we don’t want Socialism. And we don’t want the rich robbed to give to the poor. “Borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.”
According to history the world has always been a mess. Think of our mess as “interesting”.
My change has been from happily skipping through life to working to hold down my declining physical strength.
We don’t need socialism, we need a system where people can get ahead by working hard. We used to be the land of opportunity, but that’s largely gone now. Even supposedly class-conscious Europe is ahead of us in social mobility.
And, yes, we do have to adjust to our aging bodies. Having a sense of humor and being creative helps.
It depends 🙂
Once, we were reliant on a homing pigeon or similar bring news from far a field, we couldn’t access all kinds of food because it was “out of season”, we didn’t have a lot of things on “tap”
I guess our main advance as being able to see the “news of the world, around our own country, what a respected member of society just said about xyz” at the click of a few buttons. But is it a good thing. For some yes, important for business interests for others like me curiosity on how things tick.
Some issues like the rich get richer and the poor get poorer haven’t changed all that much but the way we can “see/feel” it though this machine with a few buttons reveals much or as little as we want.
I am in a small landmass country where possibly an 8hour bus trip to the capital and seat of government was doable before cheap air flights; but what about if you lived in a big continent on the other side from the going to listen to gov’t bodies (if there was a public gallery) – still a far away place to get to, even by air. And once you got there, was the topic over that you had been interested in or…
Now you can see quickly Mr xyz said “****” and Mr pqr replied “****” and you don’t really need to be in the public gallery to keep abreast of the happenings.
That is back to my initial comment “it depends” on so many big, medium and tiny little things how much you really want the changes 🙂
One of your favorite sayings is, “It depends….” Andy’s is, “They didn’t ask us.” Change happens whether we like it or not. The question is how to handle it. I try to take advantage of the changes I like, with suitable mourning for the losses.
The biggest change I’m aware of is the climate.
The adapting over the last few years has been about caring for my parents and then adapting to not doing this any more.
US grandiosity hasn’t changed for quite a while from what I can tell.
Yes, no longer having to care for your parents and finding a nice place of your own is a big change.
I’m not sure that a lot of people in our government haven’t learned some humility. Certainly we don’t have nearly as much clout as we thought we did. The adventure continues….