"When I was ten years old...I would have given anything,
to have my own Pac-Man game at home;
I used to have to get a ride down to the arcade,
Now I've got it on my phone."
--Brad Paisley, "Welcome to the Future" (2009)
Pondering the 1960s' views of the future makes me think about where we are now:
we have arrived at the future of my childhood.
(In fact, we've survived a couple of the imagined hot spots-- 1984 and 2001--which turned out to be hot indeed.)
So, how're we doing? What do we think?
I adore Brad Paisley's funny, celebratory answer (with just a touch of melancholy in the music), in his country/Southern rock song "Welcome to the Future."
Of course I have to like Brad Paisley--he worked with Bill Shatner on Bills' 2004 album Has Been and wrote the lyrics for his song "Real."
And look what's illustrating the lines"So many things I never thought I'd see,
Happening right in front of me":
It's the Enterprise shuttle!
Boy's a Trekkie.
(I guess it doesn't hurt that, as my friend John would say, he doesn't scare the horses either.)
"Wherever we were going, well, we're here..."
So... where now?