predicting the future

What kind of things do we dream of in our futures? What will come true?

Here's a little compilation that originally ran in Ladie's Home Journal in 1900.

It's equally interesting and amazing what they had right and what they had wrong.

why do middle class kids get such esoteric degrees?

Helen posted a great comment on one of my recent posts about life.

I decided to just make a new post in response, because there's some good stuff in there.

So, "Why do middle class kids get such esoteric degrees?"

I think that was obvious - because that's what we were supposed to do. Especially my particular age bracket (I'm 30). Those of us from lower-middle-class families (there used to be such a thing) saw the future. And the future was with your degree. Our parents were stuck in jobs that paid the mortgage, but they couldn't move up in life because they lacked that magic degree. It didn't matter what the degree was in, it mattered that they (didn't) have one.

We didn't see the market flooding with other kids with degrees with little practical application. We didn't see the recession. We didn't see that we might actually have to pay our own mortgage someday.

Beyond that, I think there's something ingrained in Americans that makes us all dreamers some level. The most logical, realistic people I know still have dreams of doing exactly what they want in life, even when those things are "be a rock star" or "save the world", and they are 40 years old.

I also think this is why so many people have "mid-life-crisis". They have a hard time accepting that their life is as middle-class and mundane as their parents.

I read a line in a Douglas Coupland novel that talked about how middle-class people are doomed to be forgotten by history. If you're rich and/or famous you get to write history. If you're poor you will at least be discussed in history, and you have the opportunity to do something outrageous to change your situation.

When I talk about a day job (or night job, as the case often is), I'm not necessarily looking at it as "I'd rather make money playing music". I have played music as long as I can remember, and I will always play music. I'm looking at the day job sucking time away that I would rather be doing music. 40-50 hours a week at work I can't be practicing or performing. Plus all of those hours outside of work that still get spent thinking about work, instead of thinking about music. It's unintentional, but sometimes you just think "oh, crap, I forgot I have to do this tomorrow". You can replace "music" with whatever your real passion is in life. For my friend Helen, it's art (and she's damn good). For you it might be photography or cooking or skateboarding. I have the growing desire to spend much more of my time doing music than I am currently able to spend.

Ultimately, I believe that people are essentially the same people all of their lives. They say people don't change - and this is mostly true. Sure, you might have a life changing event, a religious experience, an epiphany, something that makes you look at life differently, or be nicer to people, or change some behaviors. But who you were at 5 years old - that's the real you.

At 5 I was fiddling around on the piano, just starting to get into music, I loved playing with friends, I was adventerous, and I didn't have much use for practical matters. At 30, I'm fiddling around with bodhrán, I'm playing music in a couple groups, I seek out opportunities for adventure, and I still hate dealing with most of the practical aspects of life.

We're all just trying to balance the reality of needing the day job with the drive to do what we love. Lately I've just been having more drive and less acceptance of reality.

book club

Read This Book: Not for Ourselves Alone : The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

I'm a book lover, I enjoy history, and I count myself among educated feminists. It seems natural I would find the book interesting, but I'm surprised at how much I learned. The authors did a great job of focusing on the "woman suffrage" movement and balancing it with the culture and other events of the times. You will read about how the woman's movement begins through acts within the abolitionist movement, and then how and why the two paths divide after much time.

As I was reading the book I kept thinking that Americans need to read it. They need to know and understand what it took to simply give women the vote, much less any kind of equality in any simple aspect of their lives.

It's got biographical information on both Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, but also on lesser known heroines (and sometimes even heros) of the "woman suffrage" movement. It gives perspective to the culture and the battles women faced. It also contains excerpts from letters and speeches, as well as a number of photographs.

What I'm saying is, whether you're more interested in sociology, history, biography, or just good reading, you get it in this book... and it's IMPORTANT information.