Three reasons the world isn't as bad as I sometimes think it is.
1. I am Alive.
Twenty-eight years ago, the scientific and medical estimate for life-span of people with cystic fibrosis was age 12. A couple years later it was upped to 16. Then a few years after that, age 21. I spent the majority of my time growing up under the assumption that I was going to depart this mortal coil not long after I was legally allowed to drink. Needless to say, this impacted my psyche and life outlook a bit.
BUT, also obvious, that has not come to pass. I am seven years pass the deadline established then, as medical science has progressed to the point that a large portion of people with CF live full lives (some are in their 50's now). There is no longer a hard cap on lifespan. Every day and month and year is amazing to me, as I honestly never expected to be here experiencing them. The fact that I even HAVE a future to look forward to is spectacular. Which leads to:
2. We Live in The Future.
When I was growing up, the most amazing piece of technology to me was the Commodore 64. MY PHONE IS NOW MORE POWERFUL THAN THAT. Where I can say (all the time, in fact), "We didn't get the future we were promised," (no jet packs, flying cars, laser pistols, etc.), we in fact got a completely different one. Slightly more mundane and low-key, yes, but if you said to your parents in the past, "When I am your age, everyone in the world will be able to instantaneously communicate with each other on devices about the size of a baseball card," they would have scoffed at you in disbelief as a lunatic. Music, film, art, communications; all these areas are so far advanced in this time, and so quickly and subtly, that I suppose it's easy for us to overlook the amazing things we have at our command. The internet, iPods, hybrid/electric cars, cell phone, nanotechnology. Awesome. Which leads to:
3. Tomorrow is Unknown.
There is a definite undercurrent of cynicality in much of what I write here, I know. And it's hard to not be sometimes. The political climate is muddled at best, the dearth of truly INSPIRING media is disheartening, and while we make the best with what we have, the economy is, to put it plainly, shit. But it's easy to forget that it's not always going to be so. We don't know what's coming. The future is not yet written, and while, yes, it could most definitely be worse, there's just as good a chance that it will be BETTER.
And that's something we can't, we shouldn't, we MUSTN'T forget. Because to forget that is to descend into pessimism and cynicism and despair, and maybe I'm in the slowly shrinking minority here, but I can't be that way. I can't not believe in the future. I can't not see the best of what we could be, the best of what could be coming. I can't believe that this is all there is to us. Not in a strict religious way, because I am openly faithless, but definitely in a spiritual way. I have to believe that humanity is more than what we are now, that we are more than the sum of the past whatever-thousand years, that there is better things coming. And I guess that makes me more of an anachronism every day. But I have to believe in something.
And the future is what I choose to believe in.
Twenty-eight years ago, the scientific and medical estimate for life-span of people with cystic fibrosis was age 12. A couple years later it was upped to 16. Then a few years after that, age 21. I spent the majority of my time growing up under the assumption that I was going to depart this mortal coil not long after I was legally allowed to drink. Needless to say, this impacted my psyche and life outlook a bit.
BUT, also obvious, that has not come to pass. I am seven years pass the deadline established then, as medical science has progressed to the point that a large portion of people with CF live full lives (some are in their 50's now). There is no longer a hard cap on lifespan. Every day and month and year is amazing to me, as I honestly never expected to be here experiencing them. The fact that I even HAVE a future to look forward to is spectacular. Which leads to:
2. We Live in The Future.
When I was growing up, the most amazing piece of technology to me was the Commodore 64. MY PHONE IS NOW MORE POWERFUL THAN THAT. Where I can say (all the time, in fact), "We didn't get the future we were promised," (no jet packs, flying cars, laser pistols, etc.), we in fact got a completely different one. Slightly more mundane and low-key, yes, but if you said to your parents in the past, "When I am your age, everyone in the world will be able to instantaneously communicate with each other on devices about the size of a baseball card," they would have scoffed at you in disbelief as a lunatic. Music, film, art, communications; all these areas are so far advanced in this time, and so quickly and subtly, that I suppose it's easy for us to overlook the amazing things we have at our command. The internet, iPods, hybrid/electric cars, cell phone, nanotechnology. Awesome. Which leads to:
3. Tomorrow is Unknown.
There is a definite undercurrent of cynicality in much of what I write here, I know. And it's hard to not be sometimes. The political climate is muddled at best, the dearth of truly INSPIRING media is disheartening, and while we make the best with what we have, the economy is, to put it plainly, shit. But it's easy to forget that it's not always going to be so. We don't know what's coming. The future is not yet written, and while, yes, it could most definitely be worse, there's just as good a chance that it will be BETTER.
And that's something we can't, we shouldn't, we MUSTN'T forget. Because to forget that is to descend into pessimism and cynicism and despair, and maybe I'm in the slowly shrinking minority here, but I can't be that way. I can't not believe in the future. I can't not see the best of what we could be, the best of what could be coming. I can't believe that this is all there is to us. Not in a strict religious way, because I am openly faithless, but definitely in a spiritual way. I have to believe that humanity is more than what we are now, that we are more than the sum of the past whatever-thousand years, that there is better things coming. And I guess that makes me more of an anachronism every day. But I have to believe in something.
And the future is what I choose to believe in.
Labels: philosophy, science, the future
posted by nicholas reed at 2:16 PM
2 Comments:
I like how your misuse of your command of the English language in the passage, "BUT, also obvious, that has not come to pass. I am seven years pass the deadline established then (italics added)," still seems somehow fitting.
I DON'T LIKE MY FUTURE ANYMORE! I WANT LASER PISTOLS!!!
I don't think I ever mentioned it, but I really like this entry.
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