So. 2007.

How did that get here so fast? Didn’t we just get over 911... Y2K... turning 40? And what happened to all those things that should have been here by now? How come nobody lives on the moon yet? And what’s with Canadian troops being in Afghanistan—let alone US troops in Iraq? The view from these eyes in 1969 certainly didn’t foresee that kind of stuff...

But, neither could they have imagined seeing a rainforest from the balcony of a luxury resort, or the view through a dual-LCD portal to the world via a satellite link, or the name of a close friend calling on a cell phone. And at that time, they only had the vaguest hint of a dim picture of a future happy life in a pleasant place with a wonderful wife, family and friends.

I often wonder what someone from a previous time would think if they were somehow magically be able to see out of these eyes. Of course, the current view would cause total confusion with almost no logical extension from anything familiar: telephone, computer, camera, power cables, weird blinking lights... But even looking out my window at the pastoral scene with 2 horses foraging for still-green grass in the mostly-snow-covered pasture might cause some hairs to rise: The barn is coated with metal! What is that thin string around the field? Why do those little posts glitter in the light? And how can I be so warm in so few clothes when it is so obviously winter?

And where would I start to try to explain it all? Stuff happens, and most of the time we just drift along in the general current and have only an ephemeral awareness of the changes going on around us.