After the start of the atomic age, 1945 or so, the head-spinning advances in science and new ways of thinking prompted a new slew of futurism, with many of these ideas expressed in the science fiction of the time.
Over the past 75-plus years, it’s given us common images of what the “future” would look like.
Some of these images are of technology so advanced they seem too impossible to ever be real, a lot of robots, everyone in uniforms for some reason, and space travel. Don’t forget the space travel.
As we’ve seen over these past few decades, some of these things became reality and others haven’t gotten here yet.
Fiction is still fiction after all.
That being said, if you look at what year it is, what advances have been made, and also, what we’ve lost, I’m here to declare officially (or as officially as I can) that we are in the future. We have arrived.
Stop waiting
What does this mean?
Well, for those of us who got here one day at a time, probably not too much.
Most of us will go about our days as we always have and await what’s next.
But I imagine there are people out there who, deep down, have been waiting. Waiting for the so-called future to finally take action and take their places in the world.
Now is that time. We’ve arrived.
A common dystopian plotline in science fiction is the disappearance of religion from advanced societies.
Those that still have a deep faith are seen as primitive or fly wooden spaceships.
With culture changes as they are, we just might be heading there. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Imagine a future where amid all of the new gadgets, space travel, and questionable new fashions, faith in God grew right along with them.
There’s no reason why one of the first structures that we build on Mars someday can’t be a church.
Even better and more boldly, let’s see what didn’t work in the past and do better than we ever did before.
Some traditions always need to remain part of the Church, but we’re kidding ourselves if we think our faith resembles or needs to resemble exactly as it was in AD 33 or so.
Isn’t that was “Vatican II” was supposed to do? Bring a strong Church into the future.
Something didn’t quite work in the past 50-plus years, but hopefully, we have time yet to fix it.
Knowing our time
I’m not saying to shed everything from our past.
Most of my music is from the last century. I’d have nothing to listen to if I did that, but we have to know where we’re at in the great timeline of life.
We’ve lost too many of the things we should have kept and kept too many of the things we could do without.
Change for change’s sake doesn’t work, but there are ways we can keep up with the times and not lose ourselves in the process.
How about holograms of a reverent Mass beamed to shut-ins or supplies and food that can be easily transported to needy areas? That’s what I want to see next.
One final note
If you’re still not convinced that we’re officially living in the future, I offer you one final piece of evidence.
The model and example of all the things future, the 1960s aminated show The Jetsons, has as one of its main characters, of course, George Jetson, the family patriarch.
The show, which debuted in 1962, apparently takes place in 2062. Mr. Jetson, according to those fans who figure out these things, was 40 at the show’s start. Therefore, meet George Jetson, born in . . . 2022 (and potentially even on July 31 according to some viral social media posts).
We have some time before Elroy and Astro come along, but Rosie may be closer than we think . . .
Thank you for reading.
I’m praying for you.