Hello, hello to 2522 from the year 2022. We have a saying: “How’s by you?”
It’s a Jewish phrase that I like. How are you seeing the world these days? How is it treating you?
Having perhaps too much time on my hands, I’ve been thinking lately about what life was like 500 years ago. That would have been the year 1522. And that motivated me to send this time-capsule note to all of you 500 years hence.
So, to us, life in 1522 looks, at first glance, well, boring. No modern conveniences or forms of communication, and no entertainment. Well, wait. People back then did talk to each other. They told stories, and some wrote them down.
We think we are so smart with our internet, satellites, drones, and streams. I hope you don’t have digital connections in your brains. I want to think that humanity won’t be sacrificed to robotics.
Those of us here in 2022 seem to be losing the knack of human thought, enterprise, instinct. On our quest for the perfectionism robotics seems to offer, we are losing our ability to navigate failure, which may turn out to be a problem.
I’m in the arts, so I need to ask if you still have books, plays, and movies. I’m sure you found all of our films in various-size boxes.
Do you still have sports? Is it important which team makes the most points? Do the winners get to march down the street in a parade?
We love Shakespeare from around 500 years ago. Have any of our writers stuck around? Do people care that a couple of guys seem to be waiting forever for another guy whose name sounds like “God, oh?”
I wonder if you, 500 years later, will have answers, and more than that, satisfaction. How’s by you?
John Shuman lives in Wellfleet.
