Belatedly, Toni, Happy Christmas – and best wishes for 2010.

Ruth

Merry Christmas to all and have a Happy, Safe New Year.

T.

On the other hand, I remember sitting in a pub about twenty years ago listening to a friend explaining how, one day, computers would all be able to talk to each other… and here I am wishing you Merry Christmas across the Atlantic. Here’s to more big ideas in 2010!

I find myself nostalgic from time to time, but never for the medicine or old dentistry of former days. We live in a most remarkable age of miracles regarding those things. Life has never been better if one needs medical attention of any kind. That said, some might argue that not everything is the best ever and that a certain selective nostalgia might not be out of order. A list of things which are debatable that today’s version are the best ever might include music, literature, and art.

Even if a coarseness of life has been a part of every age, I believe that there have been times past when coarse and crude actions were not seen as so broadly acceptable as today. Every age falls short of its own ideals however, there have been ages, our own day not excepted, when high ideals were held for naught.

Finally, our current day is perhaps not the best at big thinking. I have always found examples of big thinking to be so breathtaking perhaps because they are more often than not, not to be found. The ancients certainly displayed big thinking from time to time. How could anyone so many thousands of years ago have dreamed or thought possible the pyramids when nothing close to that magnitude had ever been done on earth. How could anyone those thousands of years ago dreamed or thought possible of transporting water over and through high mountains and deep valleys for so many miles. Astounding. Soaring and breathtakingly beautiful cathederals when almost all other building of that day amounted to mud huts. I have read that medieval cathederals may have represented one-fourth of the gross national product, perhaps ten times what modern countries spend on national defense. A call to land on the moon in ten years at a time when there were only sattelites weighing a few pounds in low earth orbit. Big thinking followed by big actions.

I, like you, would not trade places with someone from former ages. I am far too comfortable but, you know, there are a number of things that I would readily trade today’s version for certain versions from the past.

Curmundgeonly yours,
Phil Hall