re-visions...
My mom is at her 50 year high school reunion. Ali is a senior in high school. I wonder what her world will be like 50 years from now?
Since I graduated a mere 25 years ago, a few things have changed. We can Skype like they did on The Jetsons with their video phones. I can talk to a device and find a directions, a shoe store, and send myself a reminder to call and make a hair appointment, not to mention call my husband. Fax machines, which I first experienced in 1990, are now an almost out of date technology. I take classes where I never see the teacher. I can't fly with my Leatherman in my pocket and I have to take off my shoes before I can get on a plane. The Soviet Union is no longer our largest nuclear threat. Video games look real and instead of a joystick to play asteroids, I bowl with my Wii controller. There are no more variety shows on television, and it seems very little real entertainment; something called "reality shows" have taken over. MTV music television doesn't seem to show music anymore. No one buys actual music platforms like cassette, cd or 8 track; music is downloaded over the Internet and transferred by magic through digital devices. Not only are VHS tapes obsolete, but even dvds are on their way out as people get their images and shows over the 'Net like their music. A black man is in the White House. The separation of church and state is in danger, echoing The Handsmaid's Tale which terrified me at age 18. The Berlin Wall has fallen. The Twin Towers have been destroyed. Genocide has happened, too often and in too many places. South Africa has ended Apartheid and Nelson Mandela is no longer a criminal but a hero. The space shuttle, which was cutting edge technology and made me cry when the Challenger exploded, has been retired for newer and better. People can pay the Russians to go into space and individuals with more money than most governments seem to have no limits to their options.
So how will the world be different for Ali, or for Jed? If my mom can go from shorthand to a smart phone, how will their lives change?
Since I graduated a mere 25 years ago, a few things have changed. We can Skype like they did on The Jetsons with their video phones. I can talk to a device and find a directions, a shoe store, and send myself a reminder to call and make a hair appointment, not to mention call my husband. Fax machines, which I first experienced in 1990, are now an almost out of date technology. I take classes where I never see the teacher. I can't fly with my Leatherman in my pocket and I have to take off my shoes before I can get on a plane. The Soviet Union is no longer our largest nuclear threat. Video games look real and instead of a joystick to play asteroids, I bowl with my Wii controller. There are no more variety shows on television, and it seems very little real entertainment; something called "reality shows" have taken over. MTV music television doesn't seem to show music anymore. No one buys actual music platforms like cassette, cd or 8 track; music is downloaded over the Internet and transferred by magic through digital devices. Not only are VHS tapes obsolete, but even dvds are on their way out as people get their images and shows over the 'Net like their music. A black man is in the White House. The separation of church and state is in danger, echoing The Handsmaid's Tale which terrified me at age 18. The Berlin Wall has fallen. The Twin Towers have been destroyed. Genocide has happened, too often and in too many places. South Africa has ended Apartheid and Nelson Mandela is no longer a criminal but a hero. The space shuttle, which was cutting edge technology and made me cry when the Challenger exploded, has been retired for newer and better. People can pay the Russians to go into space and individuals with more money than most governments seem to have no limits to their options.
So how will the world be different for Ali, or for Jed? If my mom can go from shorthand to a smart phone, how will their lives change?
| And indeed there will be time | |
| For the yellow smoke that slides along the street, | |
| Rubbing its back upon the window panes; | 25 |
| There will be time, there will be time | |
| To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet; | |
| There will be time to murder and create, | |
| And time for all the works and days of hands | |
| That lift and drop a question on your plate; | 30 |
| Time for you and time for me, | |
| And time yet for a hundred indecisions, | |
| And for a hundred visions and revisions, | |
| Before the taking of a toast and tea. ~The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock, T.S. Eliot |
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