Wonder

Once upon a time there was a world where school kids practiced hiding from atomic bombs by ducking under school desks, where milk was delivered on the front doorstep in glass bottles that were returned and refilled, where there were suspicions and rumors of sneak attacks and global destruction. When the neighbors had bomb shelters in the back yard. When even the most learned said things like "I don't know the weapons with which we will fight world war 3, but world war 4 will be fought with sticks and stones."

I grew up in those times I remember Ike and the military industrial complex,  and Khruschchev pounding his shoe, I remember sputnik, and the bay of pigs, the fear and the joy of youth and the wonder of an amazing future, JFK, John Glenn, LBJ, Birmingham on fire, MLK at the national mall, the Beatles and comic book super heroes. Where there was motivation and competition, where there was learning, discussion and dissent. Where there was a time of enlightenment and first discovery. I remember fear and awe at my personal discovery that we, mankind, could fly to the moon and back, and in the span it took for the trip, we could destroy the entirety of civilization.

The grand hypocrisy of it that is humanity - I had a naive hope that the world would awake one day and the contradictions and strife would lift. I dreamed that there would be a super hero, a Bodhisattva, a Saint, or even a benevolent arrival from space to unify the globe and bring on mundi pacem.... so I wait ... no folk tale finish, no novel awakening, yet!,
 Just the progression of growing world commerce, Mc Donalds, Disney, Exxon-Mobil, Wal-Mart, Dow Chemical, the information age, and a new awakening of national independence movements across the globe. Perhaps global financial interdependence, and instantaneous personal global communications are bringing about a new transformation of humanity. What will it look like when global corporations are the defacto ruling global force? When no one can hide from the scrutiny of automatic surveillance and consumer tracking and identity verification. Will the similarity and homogenization that global commerce are causing erase the differences and awaken a world consciousness or will the haves and have nots battle for the last scraps of this worlds resources, or could there be worse evil than the imaginings of George Orwell or HG Wells?

I wonder at what the next chapter of the book looks like and each day an new page is revealed!