IT DOESN'T seem all that
long ago that f was [7 years
old, and as geological time
goes, it was less than a
blink.

But my youngest son just
turned 17, and now that’ { think
about it, tt was indeed a long time
ago that I was his age.

Not so much in raw sidereal
time. But in interior. time. My son,
Will, is full of dreams and ambi-
tions.

He is ready to test himself
against the world, He has a politi-
cal philosophy. Moreover, it is his
own political philosophy. He
invented i it

I won't steal his stuff, so you'll
have to wait until Will makes it

* famous'before you find out what

- his political philosophy is. It does
remind me, though, that there was
‘atime when [had a political phi-
:,.lesophy too. .

“Tt was somewheré around 17.
“Now that I am thinking about it,
isn’t 17 the statistical average age

that young men have been sent off:

to combat throughout human his-
tory?

I can'see how that.would be
the case. Big, strong, sure of
themselves, with'all the time in '

_ the world in front of them..no
concept of death... =

Between me and my son there

». looms several ‘generations, or at
least the equivalent of several gen-
- erations, in terms of the distance

_ my. head has travelled since it was

his age. .
1. Like, Twas 17 in: 1958.

, Rock’n’roll had just barely
begun. Acid rock, punk; disco,
“heavy tetal and. tap weren't even
fantasies yet... * /

“ There were ‘nuclear: missiles

"strictly
personal

could quit high school and have a
blue-collar job the next day, and if
you could just type you could go
straight into the white-collar cleri-
cal workforce.

The Pill hadn't been invented.
Neither had AIDS.

Now, people say: Just worry
about yourself. Back then, it
seemed, most of the people [. was

talking to were worrying about
everything except themselves.

There was alienation to deal
with. There was existential
despair. There were those damn
crinolines.

OK, that was [7 when | was
there. Between 1958 and 1995,
there were a lot of bridges under
the water,

It was rather amazing lo see
the Space Age come and mostly
go. It was astonishing to see the
Cold War end without us all being
destroyed.

Who suspected computers in
every home’? Who guessed that
Canada would be hanging togeth-
er by a thread?

Who guessed Japan would con-
trol the world’s savings funds?

Cyberspace didn’t even exist in
science fiction because William
Gibson hadn't hallucinated it yet.

Commercial jetliners were not
yet operating across Canada.

Velcro, microwaves, Walkmans

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and Mario Brothers weren't even
a glin€in any markeler’s eye,

We hadn't even had U Thant
yet, tet alone U2.

U remember reading, years ago,
about how the rapid pace of tech-
nological develapment was caus-
ing an “accelerated rate of
change” in society.

Thai was a lovely, abstract
phrase. Now, { listen to my 17+
year-old son talking about his

ambitions and dreams, and I think,

“Jeez, you don’t know how tough
it is, kid, to change a tire, let
alone the world.”

I want to say, “Hey, calm
down, don’t you realize how huge
and complicated the world is?”
And: “How do you know what the
right thing to do is? How can you

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be so sure of your wisdom?”

And finally: “Isn't itamazing
how, at 17, you can have a better
handle on the world’s needs and
the solutions ‘to its problems than,
say, your father, who has been
ground so much longer?”

’ Or, [could say: “Why don't
you ask me, instead of telling
me?"

But J don’t say any of those
things,

There's something in the
dynamic between father and son
that seems, almost genetically, for
the son to need to see the world
from his own point of view,
Period.

The plus side is that he’s full
of this wonderful energy, like a
fire burning with much crackling
and spitting of embers.

Such certainty! Such confi-
dence! Such brilliance! Such

. audacity! Lam envious. There, I

admitted it.

a, book to’ fook :
ate. a pillow to...
rest on... a pouch
, tor carrying. your :
“eax, favourite little

books. mall |
that ahd a cuddly
é ‘friend, too.:

y / Take me with you

wherever you go!

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heads. ;
Girls wore crinolines.: You.
~~ didn’t have to have i insurance to.
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There were jobs galore. You

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