Bob's Life
I'd like to tell you a little about Bob (name changed). He lived roughly 1000 years ago. First Bob's day, then his life:
Bob gets up in the morning, a bit hungry, not quite having gotten enough sleep, with a bit of a crick in his back from sleeping on it wrong. Bob prepares himself for his day, and then proceeds to spend a fair bit of it doing the things that need to be done in order to improve his shelter and procure food and keep himself warm and generally reduce his discomforts. He looks forward to wrapping this up though, because he's got a few friends that he'll see in the evening,shootin ' the breeze and laughing at the entertaining stunt Wally pulled last week. Bob gets to bed a bit late, with a headache. Tomorrow's a big day: the in-laws are arriving.
Bob started out like most folk: learning how to walk, how to express himself, how to control his anger, how to take responsibility for his actions, and how to make decisions. As he grew, he discovered more of his interests, his likes and dislikes, and started learning more about himself. Dealing with his hormones became a part of his life. His interactions with other people started to get more complex as he found himself feeling kinda funny around that one person, irritated around that other, learning when to bite his tongue and when to let it all out. He learned, by some experience and some guidance from others, when to not hit people, the appropriate way to deal with his anger, and how to show people that he loved them. He set out to do what he wanted to in life, but got distracted by doing what he needed to do to keep food in his belly, to keep himself out of trouble (sometimes), and by his increased responsibilities at home. His body starts to bug him at work sometimes, and at night. He finds he has less patience with the new crop of idiots in town. He's busy as all get out, and wonders if life will ever quiet down for him. He has learned some things, but nobody cares what he thinks anymore. He finds it easy to be grumpy if he wants to be, but he has good memories, still enjoys the sunsets, knows he has made some good decisions in life, and has forgotten many of the bad ones. He's glad that new building in the town center has gone up, he's worked hard on that and it's something he believes will greatly help the community. He's starting to wonder what it'll be like to take his "long winter's nap."
Oh, and Bob lost a leg in the war, many years ago.
My Life and Yours
Bob's life was his own. I have mine, and you have yours. In our day, most lives are remarkably similar to Bob's -- of course with our own flavor. Similar are the lives of people of all countries, persuasions, classes, finances, cultures, etc. All, are people.
Victor Hugo wrote three books which he said were intended to be read together as a group: Les Miserables, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Toilers of the Sea. The last is one of my favorites. The three together paint a picture covering the entire gamut of the human condition. But these are not the only timeless classics, there are many. I see myself, and other people I know, in old classic literature. Why do classic tales, even those much much older than Hugo, connect to people? I posit that it's because we are the same today as we were then. In reading the old tales, fact and fiction alike, I find myself part of a vast body of folks. The human experience is what it always has been, and I'm one of them.
They say that the only sure thing in life is change. I posit today that the most important things in life remain totally unchanged -- the human experience is what it always has been. But today's essay goes beyond that:
It is common to have notions about the personal characteristics of people in other financial/social classes/life situations; this can include notions about intellect, cleanliness, snootiness, pride, grittiness, friendliness, charitable-ness, etc., etc. I posit though, based partly on observation and partly on supposition, that in actuality one's social and/or financial status has absolutely zero predicting power on one's ability to deal with anger, one's inclination to pride, one's inclination to be shy, one's marriage enhancing skills, one's charitable tendencies, etc. etc. Look around honestly, and tell me if that's not what you see.
The point today is that not only is life the same as it always has been, it's also the same for me as it is for the rich folk in one end of town and the same as it is for the poor folk at the other. And it's the same for the people in Sweden as it is for folk in the Ivory Coast, as it is for the people in Mexico, Japan, etc. etc.
Take this Home
Are we fundamentally the same people that roamed the earth 1000 years ago, and also the same as our neighbors across the globe? I'm saying yes: in my experience creating who I become and what I do with my life, I find I am not the first one in this boat.
The take home lesson, for me in my life, has been an improved view of the people I interact with, and a more honest view of myself. It also helps me to better critique the trends I see in society around me, and see through some of the confusion. Do you think there is anything fundamentally important that has changed in the last 1000 or so years? What should be the take home lesson?
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Appendix A
This is a pro-active response to a few things that I expect most people would suggest have changed in the last 1000 or so years.
- We're more civilized now than we used to be: less wars and generally nicer to each other, etc. Nope.
- Modern communications let's us communicate with more people much faster than before. Still, I suspect the number of people with which we have close relationships is not larger than it has been -- we only have so much emotional relationship budget.
- My mother lives a few hundred miles away, further than families used to be apart. And I fly around now in my car at 70mph, much faster than the foot or horse we used to depend on. Combined though, my mother lives less than half a day away -- suddenly not so atypical.
- What about our rights? Unfortunately, there are some truths which are only taken seriously when stated by select people. Fortunately, I claim to be able to make the statement I'm about to, as I am a part of a minority group which has been significantly persecuted in the recent past. My heritage is still very near to me. With those credentials, I say that nothing has changed in the way of "rights," even in the last 1000 or even 3000 years. Always there have been large numbers of people who have been repressed, prejudiced against, persecuted, etc. Each individual has had some set of rights. It's never been as much as we think it should be -- always some group should have more. Always there have been struggles to relieve such repressions etc. Sure, in our time we have more rights for this group and for that group than we used to. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying we shouldn't continue to work for more rights for all, and equality and all that. Still, I claim that life for the individual has always included various degrees of freedoms, repressions, persecutions, prejudices, etc. It's always been part of life to struggle and to be influenced more than we like by others. And unfortunately, life has always been unfair.
- We know more now than people dd years ago, but there is still so much to learn. Our education systems are getting poorer -- it has always taken an "endowed" person to get an above average education. We all influence some people who know less than us, and are influenced by people who know more than us. We still have a hard time figuring out who knows and who just thinks they know.
- My house has insulation, which wasn't common 1000 years ago. But I'm much more of a baby than people were back then, especially when it comes to wet toes and cold fingers.
- I have better food available to me now than people did 1000 years ago. Now we're talking! :)
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