And here it comes — already.
It seems as if I just got used to writing 2021 on my checks and letters and now I’m going to have to train myself to write 2022. Years ago I never dreamed that I would be around to see so much of the 21st century. It makes me think of my grandmothers who both lived longer than the average life span for women of their generation.
My maternal grandmother, from a family of farmers and adventurers, lived from an age where there were still homesteaders, log cabins and covered wagons, to see microwave ovens and color television. Her ancestors had been here before the Revolution and had steadily moved west as new territories opened up. She lived, for a few years, in a log cabin in Kansas before she and her husband went homesteading in Colorado.
My paternal grandmother came from Germany as a teenager, a child of tenant farmers; she lived to see heart transplants and men walking on the moon. She and her Norweigan husband ran a grocery store in a small town in northern Wisconsin and rented part of the second floor to a dentist who paid a large part of the rent in the form of dental care for the family. My grandfather, who I never knew, was a photographer and craftsman who built violins, toys and charming miniature furniture.
As I look back, my own life has witnessed equally remarkable progress in mankind’s achievements. I learned to drive in my grandfather’s old Chevy with a stick shift and starter button on the floor. I remember being fascinated by a film my Chevy-dealer father had that explained Chevrolet’s first automatic transmission, known as “fluid drive.” In my youth, every child was expected to have at least one talent to perform at school, church or for company at home. This could be a well-rehearsed musical number on the instrument of choice, a poem long enough to stretch the memory, a soliloquy from a play (preferably Shakespeare) or physical talent such as dance, juggling, acrobatics or a magic trick. I’m embarrassed to admit that, after about eight years of piano and guitar lessons, I still can’t play anything worth listening to.
In those days, it was believed by all that grown-ups were always wiser and knew more than children, and children were required to obey them. During my young mothering years, I learned that little boys frequently understand things that grown women find bewildering, and that 4-year-old girls sometimes have more influence and authority than adult women or men, no matter what the adults believe.
Today, I find the knowledge, understanding and insights of the young to be increasingly intimidating compared to my own expertise. If you don’t believe me, think about all the scientific discoveries that have become common knowledge to school children since you were their age. Are you prepared to pass a math test that your 15-year-old grandchild could ace with ease? Can you recite scientific names for six different dinosaurs (your average third-grader can name at least a dozen.) And who do you turn to when you need help figuring out how to access an app on your new cell phone or to find that document that seems to have disappeared from your computer?
Yes indeed, things have changed a lot in the last few years; we have to stay on our toes, so to speak, just to keep from being left in the dust. This past year has been one that we hope to never see repeated in many ways, but still, things have been chugging along and new things have been discovered and invented, so we should all try to absorb and understand as much of it as we can.
You could put together a combination list of Thanksgiving gratitude and Christmas wishes to help keep you focused through the new year. An appreciation of all that science has come up with to combat the current world health tragedy, and the scientists and world leaders who are now taking seriously the effects of climate change. We need more help for countries and people who suffer from disease and hunger, more understanding for those different from the norm who suffer from the cruel thoughtlessness of others. Greater effort to preserve endangered wildlife and habitat. We can resolve to do our part to help solve those dilemmas. And then we need to pitch in and do it.