When I think about population continuing to double in forty years and how the present population is already consuming the last of various essential resources, I get gloomy. And, when I think of how the kids I know and respect are going to cope with problems we are now creating, I get gloomy.
An hour ago I was at an annual potluck party with the UUs and I retreated from the older folks eating at tables indoors and went out onto the patio to where the kids were playing in the late afternoon twilight. After eating the fantastically delicious home-made foods those older folks brought to the event, I played with the kids.
We had some bubble-making wands, which was fun, and some badminton racquet games were very childish as the kids were about age four to seven, but it was more exuberant fun swatting live bubbles rather than fake badminton birds. And, in the midst of all that were some word games, with words I’ve never heard of, but all the other kids seemed to know. It had something to do with people with dragon faces.
I liked them, and they liked me. The games changed very quickly from one thing to another, and the rules changed too. Strangely, there always seemed to be some underlying rules like, “Don’t hurt anyone!”, and “Keep everyone involved in the new evolving game!” How are these kids going to cope with the coming problems that I see as inevitable? They will of course, or die trying.
So, you see, I do have the capacity to enjoy the moment, perhaps even more than the other people my age sitting around conversing pleasantly. And, I really do enjoy mixing with little kids as one of them. At a party I’m not a responsible adult, I’m just a bigger kid. I suspect that the older people see me that way too, and choose to stay back a little bit when I’m acting that way.
Still, lurking behind all the real fun, I have a “melancholic feeling: a weltschmerz, which translates to ‘world-weariness’ or ‘world pain’”.
Obviously, I think too much!
