| I’ve been thinking lately that these long stretches of time are less long than we think when we’re young. A person who lives a long but relatively normal life might live until 70 to 90, and for the healthy and or affluent that’s been true basically forever. Thinking about this in terms of human lifespans shrinks time a lot. I have been told stories about my great great grandparents, so even those experiences are at the fading edge of recently passed down history. But anyway, back to thinking in terms of lifespans... It’s only been 1 lifespan since world war 2, and only a generation (1/3 of a lifespan) more since world war 1. It’s only been 2 lifespans since the civil war. 3 since the Napoleonic Wars. 6 since the renaissance, Columbus, and the fall of Constantinople (separate events but close in time). About 20 lifespans since the Roman Empire. When you imagine that you yourself will live 70-90 years or more, and the changes you will see and have seen so far, and how quickly that time passes... it’s interesting to think how recently history happened. At least for me, with this measuring stick, it only starts to sound “a long time ago” again when thinking about things like the first pyramids (2570 BC), about 57 lifespans ago. And it’s interesting to note that that far back, there were only about 14 million people on the earth. |