Evolution
Last night we watched Emma. For context, Jane Austen wrote Emma in 1815. A time when people wore layers of clothing, the wealthy were landowners, everyone talked in circles, and romance was a game.
It is hard to not to look at everything with a lens on the future. Each generation shifts just a bit. My Grandmother dressed up every single day. She didn’t own casual clothes, they were not part of her repertoire. Clothes very much define the times. Masks are in, suits are out.
Emma was married at 18. Now people wait to get married and have children. Will that shift back? Now people talk directly to each other not in circles through others. Romance can start with a swipe. We adapt and change with the times.
As a world we have lived through many traumas that have sent us down new paths. Pandemics, global warming, the shifting of power to China and of course the Internet are just some of the changes happening today. It will change our behavior and how we interact with each other. It will change how we dress and how we live.
Watching what was top of mind and how people interacted 200 years ago makes me wonder about evolution. Strange times create new normals.
Comments (Archived):
Gonna watch this.I realized that I was raised by people who were born about a century ago, and for my grandfather further.To their credit and my good fortune that they raised a family of kids that were open and jumped into new times.The magic is not the change, the magic is that we need to be and raise our kids to feel ready for something completely different.
#magic
.The 18 year old Emma of 1815 lived in an England in which the average female life expectancy was 40 years. This Emma was looking at 22 years of remaining life. No telling how many of those years would be enjoyable.Today an 18 year old girl would live in an England in which her average life expectancy would be 81. That girl would be looking at 63 years of remaining life with an expectation that her quality of life would be very high until the last few years of her life.There are a great number of reasons, chief amongst them being superior medicine, better nutrition, better living conditions, less taxing lives, retirement comforts of life both physical and financial.It is not that people are delaying getting married and having children as much as they have a longer period of time in which to be prepared for life with many persons of this current time spending as many as 17 years in which to acquire a “basic” education before even contemplating learning a trade or a means of making a livelihood.While it feels very trying in the midst of the COVID19 pandemic, the truth of the matter is that the hype does not even begin to match the reality of the situation.A month ago, we were looking at 2.2-2.4MM deaths based on the “experts” and their models. After several iterations, we are now looking at less than 60,000 which is the identical number for the flu in the preceding 12 months.Much of what we face is simply hyperbole. Gov Cuomo had the world believing he needed 40,000 additional ventilators just two weeks ago. Now, it appears that NY has already hit “peak ventilator” and the top number will be fewer than 6,000 ventilators.Some of the extraordinary measures — Javits Hospital conversion, USNS Comfort in the harbor — appear to be overkill and will not be utilized at anywhere the anticipated level of usage.Somebody living in Lubbock, TX is not going to be impacted by the pandemic in any manner other than the hospitals being empty and the staff being laid off.Wyoming has 230 cases of COVID and ZERO deaths. Their experience is unremarkable and it will not mark their life in any manner.The impact is unevenly distributed. NYC–NJ–Conn are ground zero and they have been hit hard, but not nearly as hard as they thought.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…
Come walk around Berger and Essex counties and see what you think after that stroll!
.What would you have me see and learn? Note that I believe NY-NJ-CONN have been hit hard.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…
I don’t think any hard conclusions can be drawn as yet with less than 1% of the population tested. Virus may not have reached rural areas. But I do believe we could have moved earlier.
200 years ago or not, the human heart has not changed. All of the nuances aside, we are the same animal throughout the centuries. The same games played out in different ways. And romance is still a game. Is Global warming really a trauma? I’ve lived in the same house now for 18 years and nothing has changed. Strangely, the trees popped out once again this year, just like always.