Just as a thought exercise, I tried to recall the 20 year old me of 1958 and tried to look at America, the world, today from that viewpoint.

Space X, Falcon 9, the Dragon launch, etc., yep 20 year old me could appreciate and delight in that, a natural progression from the Sputnik launch in ‘57.

The population explosion? Of course, easy to understand and expected, seeing the almost exponential population growth following WW II.

Much of today, however, would be completely alien and absolutely inconceivable to that 20 year old me.

Just to mention a very few of the great many things that…

Grown women, and men, proudly walking the streets in pussy hats? Women proudly wearing full body vagina costumes on Washington Mall? Drag queens’ story reading in libraries and elementary schools? Racist to say all lives matter? Blacks demanding segregated dorms in colleges? Police standing down while a mob takes over their police station? A presidential candidate calling half the nation deplorable? Tearing down statures of Robert E. Lee, George Washington, Christoper Columbus and a missionary priest? Brand names, team names, street names, changed to avoid offending someone or other? People and groups barred from using Paypal, Visa, etc., because, though their business is perfectly legal, somebody dislikes them? A celebrity selling candles made to smell like her ____? A scientist’s life and works canceled because he wore a Hawaiian shirt? Banks refusing loans and bond support to anything dealing with the oil industry because carbon dioxide is bad? A world wide lockdown because of a flu and, amazingly, most people accepting and going along with it? The Governor of California mandating all people must wear masks in public? States requiring a 14 day quarantine of visitors arriving from other states? The need for more personal pronouns than just he, she, it? Money in your bank account seized and turned over to the state if you allow the account to remain inactive too long? Police able to issue you a Driving Under The Influence ticket if you’ve had 3 beers and are on your own property, mowing your own lawn on a riding mower? One must take off their shoes to prove they are not a threat to be able ride an airliner? One way aisles on supermarkets? Boys that “identify” as girls must be allowed in girls’ locker rooms? Medal detectors at grade school entrances? Criminals released from prisons so they don’t catch a virus, church goers threatened with being sent to prison because they got too close to each other and might pass along a virus?

Yes, just a few of the very many things that make up today that 20 year old me in 1958 could not ever conceive and that me, today, trying to look at from my 1958 viewpoint, quite frankly, would not believe to be possible.