- Details
- Written by Marge Jesberger Marge Jesberger
Did you ever feel that you were born too early or too late, stuck in a sort of decade limbo?
Some of us arrived prematurely for the spellchecker (we foolishly learned how to actually spell).
Some of us learned to tell time on a clock dial with the big hand on the four and the little hand on the 12! Then came digital watches.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m grateful to be “out of sync”; I’m thrilled that I missed out on Custer’s Last Stand and the leper colonies. It was a good thing I wasn’t around for the bubonic plague, the Great Chicago Fire, and the Great Depression, but living in the electronic\technical age also has its share of drawbacks.
Many of us grew up without the luxury of iPads or voice-activated computers. We probably utilize a small fraction of their cyber-capabilities.
Being a postwar baby has enabled me to exist on the verge of historical breakthroughs for mankind — some frivolous, others crucial. Thankfully, I was born just in time for organ transplants, vehicle airbags, robots, and cellphones.
It’s true: Baby boomers escaped the guillotine, iron lungs, and the Alamo, but we are also reaping the benefits of MRIs, satellite transmissions, and plastic surgery.
Generations before us worked long and hard to make way for social changes that benefit us today. Concepts like family and maternity leave, four-day workweeks, and early retirement were unthinkable years ago.
Thank goodness I was not among the early pioneer settlers who had to toss their belongings into a covered wagon or go across country in a rickety stagecoach. They endured many hardships, but maneuvering my car around potholes or getting stuck in a traffic jam with a full bladder isn’t my idea of a picnic, either.
I’m sure that in the not-so-distant future, everyone will have their own individual Segway (self-balancing human transportation). Our grandchildren will be amazed that we actually walked to the store or post office instead of going online.
Emotionally, we are stuck amidst Freud, Dr. Spock, and Dr. Phil. Physically, we are sandwiched somewhere between Jack LaLanne, Richard Simmons, and virtual personal trainers. It is no wonder we can’t keep our perspective.
Today’s advances are tomorrow’s throwaways. Do you think our great-grandparents could sympathize with us if our microwave malfunctioned? Would the early pioneers care if our remote control was busted? The nuisances we find unacceptable would have been a godsend to the caveman. Future generations will laugh at a cable blackout or an electrical outage.
Timing is everything. Research, education, and social acceptance are all factors for major new discoveries. We are living in a juxtaposition of inventions: those that were obsolete before they could get into production and those cutting-edge innovations happening at warp speed.
We’ve gone from the stagecoach to the space shuttle, dinosaurs to cloned sheep, and from the Pony Express to email in a very short time.
I am not overly optimistic, nor presumptuously pessimistic, about the future. I’m somewhere “in between.” Since the past was good and the present even better, I’ve decided to stick around for the unforeseeable future.