Adrift?

We could say among other ways that our culture has evolved from Agricultural (rural, small town) to Industrial (cities, suburbs) to Commercial (worldwide) in the past century or so. What direction is next, if any, is anyone's guess.

Along with these changes there are others: mobility, theoretically, politically, economically, academically, ethnically, socially, religiously. Some call it progress, others question that while still others are unsure what to label it: progression, regression, evolution, adrift (rudderless, aimless, unplanned)?

Without a doubt, it is probably a little of all this: planned and unplanned, natural and unnatural, visionary and delusional, premeditated or plotted. On occasion, elderly friends relay tidbits of reminders of the good old days. We look in awe at some of those fashions, antiquated behaviors, and it even evokes a smile or a frown as we wonder how we survived to greet new eras as senior citizens (ol' geezers, fuddy duddies, ancients and yes, pathfinders?).

After all, even though today is so unlike yesterday, how did it get that way? Not by our great grandchildren. But, you guessed it, by salty ol' seniors and baby boomers, citizens of earlier parts of the past century. We get both the credit and blame. We seniors walked to school, the grocery store (no supermarkets), drove Model A's on one lane often gravel (or dirt) roads. We had larger families with one radio and ate meals together regularly. We had relatives who lived on farms and we not only survived but thrived somehow.

Now that we have agreed that perhaps no century has seen changes like this one. 1915 was more similar to 1815 than to 2015. While having our car serviced, I flipped through a magazine to discover that Westerly parts of our country have been savaged by wildfires in the last few years only to witness a significant growth of families living in those dangerous territories amidst huge disagreements between builders, realtors, farmers vs. environmentalists whether to concentrate on prevention or fighting wild fires. Humans will decide, not fate.

Another secular magazine depicted the shrinkage of families (mom, dad and the kids) to single parenting vs. the rising numbers of unmarried. Concern about the future of the traditional family may finally be on the rise (and we should include the almost extinct extended family where uncles and aunts, grand parents and cousins stepped in when needed). If so, that ancient premise Honor parenting or your future will not endure (paraphrased) may not be so archaic (out- dated) after all. Of all past civilizations, how many survived?