HOW DID WE GET HERE? WHERE ARE WE GOING?

Have you ever wondered what it would be like for someone to have gone to sleep in 1950 and not awakened again until 2010? You can fill in your own way of manufacturing this unusual situation. It doesn’t matter whether they were – Rip Van Winkled – in a coma – or frozen in a cryogenic facility, they have been totally unaware of the passing of time and the circumstances of change. They just wake up in a world that has moved forward 60 years. For our imagined situation we will limit the pre and post experiences to Southern California with apologies to others who are not that well acquainted with life in this particular Garden westward of Eden.

When they went to sleep the road from Los Angeles to San Diego was a narrow winding road with a maximum safe speed of 50 mph with periodic slowdowns through small and sleepy surferless beach communities; they awoke to people making this same trip along an interstate freeway which at times exceeds 10 lanes accommodating the massive movements of motorists at speeds varying between, a lawfully minimum exceeding, 70 mph (and who knows how fast the inconsiderate idiot is traveling), at non-accident, non-rush hour times, not even having to slow while going through the most metropolitan of areas.

When they went to sleep individual communications with those outside the limits of hollering were confined to black, yellow or pea soup green dial phones which in most homes were found in only one location in the home and grounded by a cord. When one was away from home they could generally find a phone booth and for 10 cents they could make a local call. They awoke to a world where the right of passage for a child entering a grade in school somewhere between the 1st and 6th grades was the gifting of access to a personal wireless handheld device with the capability of unlimited applications. They awoke to a communications system where place and time offered neither limitations nor restrictions when reaching out to friends, family and businesses. One had to dedicate themselves to deliberately swimming against the tide if they were to remain outside the constant accessibility of the wireless world. A world where phone booths had gone the way of the dinosaur and could only be found on Antique Roadshow and in isolated corners of airports.

An extended thesis could be done on the creative technological and physical advancements which would have greeted our friend upon awakening after the 60 year drowse, but perhaps they would have been greeted by an even more shocking discovery as they came to a realization of the changes in social mores.

They went to sleep in a world where the dating process provided a social environment where one could encounter and develop a relationship which might lead to finding their eternal companion. They would have awakened to a dating world of a weekly lottery of rotating ‘soul mates’ where commitment was short, halting or non-existent. Strangers flitting from one temporary acquaintance to the next, which resulted in canned relationship statements said while stammering, stuttering or often totally ignoring expressions of fondness and love.

They went to sleep knowing that the ideal family was but a pretend world found only in the scripts of ‘Father Knows Best’. They knew that their own real home was not always such an ideal place, but there was usually a desire, which was sometimes actuated, to contribute to the improvement of the family’s deficiencies. Once again, after this 60 year lapse awakening to find that ‘families’ had become an increasingly transitory interchangeable cast of characters and locations, where adjustment was mandatory for an individual’s survival. The reading of a wedding invitation required a degree in genealogy to decipher the entanglement of relationships. The disclosure of the dysfunctions of the variable units of maturation had become a fast track to 15 minutes of fame where one could openly disclose gritty details on a daytime talk show.

They went to sleep in a time when the first time anyone graduated was after the successful completion of 12 years of schooling, where celebrations of marriage became significant only after the participants had come to the golden year of unity. They awakened in a world where they were expected to attend a multiplicity of graduations beginning with the transition from Pre-School into elementary school. A society where each year of wedded union was being recognized as if it had golden significance, and indeed each added year, in this strange new world did give reason for celebration as if it were to be the last.

I wonder if our post-slumber friend would take the time to look for possible reasons behind these dramatic social changes, or if they would just request to be put back into their hibernational state.

If they did take the time to investigate the events, which brought about the execution of the old and the creation of the new civilization they had just awakened into, it might be possible that some of the following points won't be found in their report.

This strange new world might be reported to be filled with inhabitants who honestly believed that it was ‘all about me’, and very little had to do with ‘you’ or ‘we’. Each individual seemed to be living in a one ring circus where they played the roles of master, act, and crowd.

This strange new world might be reported to be filled with dwellers who suffered from patience deficiency and required to have every desire fulfilled ‘now’ as if they had all captured the ‘Genie of the Blue Light Bulb’ who possessed the power to grant unlimited wishes. Everyone seemed to be daily going about the business of dealing, distributing, devouring and discarding stuff.

This strange new world might be reported to be filled with tenants who had become perfect in the living the doctrine of ‘loving thy self,’ but were found wanting when it came to likewise ‘loving their neighbors.’ All seemed to be living in a strangely interesting directional world where happiness could only be found if all positive reinforcements were aimed in their direction and all negative criticisms were sent in the direction of others.

This strange new world might be reported to be filled with citizens who found any quiet alone time boring and depressing; therefore, they saw them busily going about creating and surrounding themselves with an environment where there was a never-ending cyber generated world of artificial relationships, being able to create or destroy intimacies with people with whom they would undoubtedly never have a personal face to face exchange. Strangely while they were involved in this ‘reality world’ they were becoming less and less involved in real life relationships which seemed to be becoming of little consequence in their vision of what was required to become fulfilled as a person.

This strange new world might be reported to be filled with residents who found duplicity of beliefs a natural convenience for sustaining their vision of truth. Tolerance would be something that others must have for me and my way of life, while I retain the right to call your way of living one that is built upon biases of blindness and bigotry. My visions of relationships were to be understood and indulged, but yours were to be looked at with skepticism, cynicism and disbelief.

I am never going to be one who wants to completely return to the ‘good ole days’, and I recognize that the openness and more integrated society we enjoy today is in many ways far superior to what was. I also enjoy the creative improvements which have made it possible for us to have so much more re-creational time. I would just encourage us to once in a while pause and think about whether change is or is not an improvement on what was. We might consider for a moment whether all movement is or is not necessarily in a forward direction. Likewise, we might consider whether the need to be different does or does not result in us being better off because we made the change.

We might also take a moment to ponder whether in some instances it might be possible that looking to ‘what was’ may be a way to move toward making the world that some will wake up in in the year 2070 a more wonderful and blessed ‘what is to be’.