The Future

Recently at work I had the least triggering conversation with co-workers in a long time. Each was showing pictures of their nieces and the baby fever was ignited. One wanted to supress the baby fever because she wanted to go to graduate school. Finally . Normal conversation. No politics, no disease talk. Just normal speak that could be discussed in any generation . I have hope for the future. Literally.....

The Mighty Escalator

         New York City is such and old place. I never forget my first trip to Macy's in Herald Square . I will never forget noticing the presence of escalators from another era. I do not know if those escalators were even around in the 1950's when my parents were growing up. Over the years they have renovated Macy's many times. No matter how big the overhaul those old escalators have remained.
        This week on an outing to Macy's Herald Square I noticed that there are a few new fangled escalators in the newer balcony section. Otherwise the vintage escalators have remained.
          I would say it feels comforting to still see the vintage escalators, but if I said that I would be lying. Those escalators are from a bygone era before I was born. The escalators are more fun in the vain of the vintage trains that sometimes run during December.  It feels so odd that so much  past architecture has left us, but the mighty escalator remains.
      I wonder what unjustified architecture will be around in another 60 years for the next generation to ponder.

In the Moment

      I always like to have  something to look forward to,  especially when I am engaging in activity I would rather not be . It is good to have something to look forward to but it is equally important to appreciate the moment. Though I am quite good at looking forward to positive future events I am also quite good at anticipating possible negative events. This is not necessarily a minus  as long as it does not prevent me from enjoying the

 present which is still awesome.

Cheap or Endearing?

      I was recently speaking with an elderly acquaintance who told me that he did not want to spend extraneously on himself because he wanted to leave a lot of money to his children. He did not seem to be living like a pauper, but he was money conscious. My first reaction was that it was very sweet. He loves his children that much. On the other hand he could not be tricked into overspending because he had a goal in mind. I also wished that I was as disciplined. I don't have children at the moment, but its not a bad idea to save for the future. I wish I had that kind of discipline.
      A number of friends of mine said that though they married on the later side neither they or their husband had much saved up. I guess when one is single one can get caught up in the single life and can forget that there will be a future that one should be saving up for.
      As for my acquaintance, I hope his kids appreciate his kindness and love for them now while they are still together.

The Past

      Sometimes its hard to believe that life happened before I was born. I have parents, grandparents and friends who can verify that history is real, but still, its hard to fathom. Its also hard to grapple that those much younger than me do not remember much of what I remember growing up. It makes sense though. They were not born yet. What makes this all the more interesting is that if I have trouble believing the validity of the recent  past and I actually know people who lived in it, what about people of the future? How will they believe that what happened in our times really occurred?

life

     Though we are called by the same name (unless we change it) our entire lives, we are really different people at different times of our lives. First we are babies, then toddlers, children, young adults, adults, middle aged , and then if we are fortunate we become elderly. Though we always seem to be just ourselves throughout these stages, we are also really different.
     I would like to encounter my younger self and speak to her with what I know now that I did not know then. If only I could look into the future and guess what my future self would want to tell me  with what I will know then.
     Perhaps it really is best not to know what is yet to happen. Perhaps it is good that we can't communicate now with who we will  be in the future. If we could we might not make the mistakes we will make today, but perhaps we wouldn't take the risks we should take if we knew what the future holds.

do over

if you could go back in time and relive certain parts of your life do you think you would really change how you handled things , not knowing what you know now?  its easy to say that you would, but if you didn't know what the future would hold . truthfully , even if you did know that certain choices you made in the past would be counterproductive you still may not have changed how you did things. when one is in the moment it is hard to see the big picture. sometimes there are reasons one makes certain choices at certain times and at the time they seem inevitable.you may not have done things differently. hindsight is twenty / twenty.