Day 61- Old Stuff is Good for the Brain

I'm not much of a shopper and I really do hate the mall experience so you won't find me hanging out there or meeting a friend to do some window shopping. My daughter gets me to go along with her every now and then, but it's usually an in and out thing where she's going to pick up something in particular. But I do love little shops that sell antiques or other unusual things. Yesterday I was in a shop that smelled like cinnamon and was filled with just the kind of things I like to have around my house - handmade pottery, wooden bowls and kitchen utensils, textiles and old books. The shop had an entire room filled with old magazines. and periodicals.  I found a stacks of science magazines and paged through a few. What a treasure! Looking at them kept me busy for most of the ride home (honest, I wasn't the one driving).

I purchased a few editions that were printed in the 1930's and a couple more that were from the early sixties. It is amazing to me how much our culture has changed and how much of our progress can be documented just by looking through some old journals. There were articles written about someday going to the moon and what that could mean to our understanding of the world and the universe. Other articles discussed the possibility of using stationery satellites to advance communication in the areas of radio, television and telegraph. (Guess they didn't think of cell phones or a GPS). There were medical devices that looked positively barbarian and ideas whose time has come. An article in a 1960 publication stated the spending for national security would be 40.9 BILLION. I didn't think I got that right, so I read it again. Billions in the 60's? I thought that kind of spending was a NEW problem. Consider me corrected.

So here we are still at the beginning of a new century and I'm wondering what folks will be reading about us in fifty or even eighty years from now. Will the ailments that afflict us now become a thing of the past? Will our high tech phones, computers, and  entertainment centers look as antiquated to them as much as their cars, planes and trains look to us? What does the future hold for our children and grandchildren? Are the advances we're making going to make their lives better or just more complicated? Closer or just close enough? Will we find new technologies and discoveries that will end suffering and bring us a better quality of life? Who knows. What I do know is that my little trek into the past got me thinking and I felt curious and interested while I was diving into those old journals. It was great fun to explore a forgotten time and learning something new is a great way to feel alive and engaged.