I was born five days beyond my expected due date, probably because I did not want to enter a world where equailty for everyone would never be achieved in my lifetime. I had no way of knowing this then, but it is a viable rationale.
I also had no way of knowing that a U.S. president would be assassinated before I finished elementary school, or that astronauts would walk on the moon before I completed middle school.
I had no way of knowing that my childhood friend would be killed in Vietnam before I graduated high school, or that a U.S. president would resign in disgrace before I got my college degree.
My birthday now is observed in a space and time referred to by Joe Namath as "The 4th Quarter of Life." The game is not yet over, but the clock is now a factor in many things, among them the question of what will come after I am gone.
For instance, will newborns face a future where their existence is completely defined and controlled by Artificial Intelligence?
Will everything -- including their souls -- be for sale to the highest bidder?
Will they express themselves, or will freedom of speech be illegal?
And will anything not immediate and in real time matter to them because history is erased?
The past is not always prologue, especially in today's world where survival depends on moving forward, regardless of fate.
Perhaps this is how we bring order to disorder, calm to chaos and -- most important -- purpose to life.
(Photo: Me at four months old)
