I was quite disappointed when 2000 rolled around.I have been informed by a very important person who was born in that year - on the 27th of December, to be precise - that she was quite hurt at my being disappointed. How could the most glorious year of our time be a disappointment, given such an illustrious birth?
And of course it could not. As I went on to explain:
Oh, OK, I wasn't really disappointed. But it is true that for one born in the first half of the twentieth century, there was a magic about the idea of "the year 2000."I had grown up with expectations around the figure '2000'
Only the first day I went back to work - Wednesday 5 January, 2000 - I took the same old diesel 'bus; wore the same baggy clothing; worked in the same buildings of concrete and steel. For those not born in 1942, my disappointment may be surprising. They had not seen futuristic drawings of 2000, with people in skin-tight clothes, commuting by personal helicopter, working in sweeping-line skyscrapers.I only wished to correct this deeply concerning misunderstanding. I wept to think I had caused someone to believe I was disappointed at the year of her birth.
We all do experience disappointments - and often ones that are far more serious than my, admittedly, light-hearted comments above. Some are of great moment indeed. All reflect our view of time - at least, they do so if we truly believe that '... all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28). For what we want is the good that we have conceived - and we want it now.
This is natural. It is very natural. Our calling is supernatural.
2 comments:
I too remember noting how the year 2000 didn't match its glowing description. Growing up, I was the proud owner of an illustrated children's book, written in 1967 (the year I was born) that described the "world of tomorrow", set in the year 2000. This "world of tomorrow" had high-speed mag-lev trains, self-driving cars, flying cars, almost free abundant electricity generated in safe and efficient nuclear power plants, a life of leisure for everyone (one would have to work only a few hours a week), and each home would have a computer "as small as your desk".
Reality turned out a bit differently. The year 2000 did have high-speed trains in some places, but not in my country, Canada, which surely needed them. There were no self-driving or flying cars. Electricity was far from free: while some safe and efficient nuclear power plants existed, some of those turned out not to be so safe, and they all turned out to be far from inexpensive. Computers, well, there were many of those: much smaller than one's desk. But not just me, but almost everyone I knew, worked harder than ever. We were grateful for the work, for not all had work, and those without work struggled. I think this aspect of the "world of tomorrow" is the bit I most wish had been realized. I would have loved a life of leisure for everyone: think of all the good things we would all have had time for!
One thing I remember very strongly about 1999 - we were panicking (at both my main job and part-time job, both in computers) about Y2K. We poured enormous effort into fixing bugs, finding things that might be a problem. In the event, there was no disaster. I have never known if that meant there never would have been - or if ours, and the world's, efforts to avoid it worked.
jj
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