Sometimes it’s fun to look back and see how far we’ve come.
For example, thirty years ago, the world was a completely different place. Let’s look at some of the highlights from the mid-eighties.
If you wanted to see an action movie, you could head off to the cinema to see the new film Predator—all about an alien sport hunter.
Okay, maybe not the best example. I’ll try again.
Let’s say that politics was an interest. No doubt you would have been following the story about the U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel indicted after his actions against the country came to light.
Hmmm … Maybe it was different in the natural world.
Massive wildfires destroyed hundreds of thousands of acres of wilderness, and concerned us all about the state of the environment.
The way we treated each other, then.
Racial tensions in the U.S. were running high, and led to a number of horrific attacks.
Money?
Financial markets fell sharply, making people the world over nervous.
It must have been the way we spent our leisure time.
You could take a break and relax by laughing at one of TVs most popular shows, The Simpsons.
Maybe not so different, after all.
It’s easy to get caught up in the idea that whatever we’re living through, no-one has ever put up with the insanity that we’re dealing at this very moment.
Or, the polar opposite.
That we’ve got it so great.
Like nobody ever before and like nobody will in the future.
I think it was a famous Charles (Dickens) who said, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
Or was Bukowski? It sounds like his view of life, though maybe a little too upbeat.
Whoever it was that penned those lines, I think they were on to something.
Maybe each day is both the best, and the worst. Maybe things don’t change that much and today is much like yesterday was, and tomorrow is gonna be a lot similar.
The details will vary, sure, But at our core, people are people and we’re still going to make technological leaps, create beautiful art, behave badly towards others, make great decisions, do boneheaded things, spread love, be frightened, and do all the other things that imperfect human beings do.
Just like our forbears did before we arrived.
And in the same way that our descendants will do, long after we’re gone.
I was particularly reminded of this in the last few days while looking through some of Dad’s old documents from the early days when he was creating the Rafferty series. I found the original document he sent to agents and publishers, trying to drum up interest in the first story about our favorite Dallas P.I.
As part of the synopsis, he’d included a characterisation of Rafferty. I was surprised and delighted to find that this aligned almost perfectly with the character outline I jotted down before I wrote False Gods.
Except, I think Dad phrased it better.
See what you think.
It was an absolute joy to read this, written back in the mid-eighties, and think of all that has happened since.
All that has changed, and all that has stayed the same.
And the thing that hit me the hardest is those last two lines of Dad’s document.
No matter what the world throws at us, now and in the future, we have to carry on knowing that there isn’t someone like Rafferty there for us in the real world.
But, dammit, there should be.
And that thought gives me enough impetus to keep moving forward, not getting bound up in whether times are the best or the worst, but to stay focussed on keeping Rafferty alive and with us.