I'm not sure if (Sir) Paul McCartney was thinking of me when he penned the words to the song "When I'm Sixty-four" many decades ago. Probably not. While most of it does not apply to me at this point of life, it does in one area: I will be sixty-four soon (which means 65 next year...oh boy).
I just thought it was a quippy way to start an otherwise tentative column on the subject of birthdays, life and death, and the future, as well as the state of the Vancouver Canucks.
Well, actually the column has nothing to do with the Canucks, but, hey, I'm 64 and when you're my age, you can get away with saying things that don't make sense—teeth in or teeth out.
Where were we? And while I'm at it, where are my teeth, my glasses, the remote...?
So, at sixty-four now, I am once again in one of those musing moods (Maurice, that would be "reflective"). I park there a lot these days, as I find myself often asking the same question, namely, "Where are we heading?"
"We" is a pronoun, as you all know (or at least should know), and , it takes the place of a noun or noun phrase. In this case, "we" refers to our present society, and the people who make it up. That would be people like me, you, and that guy over there smirking on his smart phone.
Without trying to sound any more morose than necessary, I am sitting at this stage of life, wondering where we are heading as a culture. To be true, there are some good trends, but some very nasty ones, too.
I love history (unvarnished, untouched, and unbiased) and I am aware that, say, in the last 200 years, there have been many bad things that have happened on a global scale. I suggest things have been worse over the past few decades than they are now; they may seem worse today, but that is due in part to the "advances" of social media.
And there have been some phenomenal advances in forms of agriculture, health, education, sciences and technology, for starters, though I could advance the argument there are some very scary trends in those same disciplines.
Myself, I will likely make it through the next thirty years relatively unscathed--emotionally, spiritually and financially--so it's not really me that I am concerned about. It's about my kids and grandchildren, and your kids and grandchildren.
You're asking, "I there is so much improvement, why the doom and gloom?" Great question! It would take a book, or at least a series of essays, to fully answer that question.
There are other, subtle trends that show no slowing down; in fact, they appear to be increasing in their evil ramifications a yearly basis. Re-stated: some things may be getting better and merely holding their own, fair enough; but it's the others that have me concerned. There are many, but I think I can synthesize them into three broad categories, which should embrace the rest.
The three trends are as follows: homeland violence, edgy arts, and diminishing freedoms.
When I speak of the first trend, namely, homeland violence, I am referring to things that take place here on our soil, not on a global basis. I am referring specifically to road rage, home invasions, racial assaults (both ways), left vs. right rallies, carjackings, gunplay in a public setting, knockout games, rural crime and random attacks, I would even place abortion and euthanasia in here. With the growing lack of respect for human life anymore, this is inevitable.
Edgy arts (via movies and music) is another alarming trend: One, there is little care on both sides of the stage or screen, whether one is producing or performing, or taking it in; and two, most celebrities in question could care less what sort of role model or what are the ramifications of his/her performance. Again, it has always been smutty; it's just now worse, and we're paying the price at every level.
Finally, diminishing freedoms is likely the most subtle of all three. For example, there's talk of freedom of speech, until we speak with an "unacceptable" conservative view. They say we have freedom of choice and then curtail most freedoms--even freedom to disagree.
If Sir Paul were to write his ditty again, with 2018 in mind, I wonder what it would look like? Probably a little more uptight than upbeat.
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