Change

I always say that I am a "486 in a Post-Pentium world".  As I am sure you know, this is in reference to computer processor speeds and how they have (changed) sped up over the years.  Society is always demanding faster change and complaining when they don't get it.

Some of our parents and grandparents saw amazing change over the course of their lifetimes.  Personal computing wasn't even a pipedream when our grandparents were teenagers.  The colloquialisms we use now mean nothing to those generations upon which we are built.

I often think of a woman I knew in Arizona.  She passed in 2004.  Lenore was 108. (Quick math: 2004 - 108 =  1896)

Now,  lets think about the change Lenore dealt with:
1896 (Lenore is Born)
- Utah is the 45 state admitted to the union
– The Ford Quadricycle, the first Ford vehicle ever developed, is completed, eventually leading Henry Ford to build the empire that "put America on wheels".
1914
World War 1 STARTS.
1916  (Lenore is 20 years old)
– The light switch is invented by William J. Newton and Morris Goldberg.
1926 (Lenore is 30 years old)
- Television is DEMONSTRATED (not in production or widely in use...I said "DEMONSTRATED")
- Land on Broadway and Wall Street in New York City is sold at a RECORD $7 per sq inch.
- Queen Elizabeth II is BORN
1936 (Lenore is 40 years old)
 - Margaret Mitchell's novel Gone with the Wind is first published.
 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt attends the dedication of Thomas Jefferson's head at Mount Rushmore.
1939 - 1945
World War II
1956 (Lenore is 60 years old)
– Elvis Presley enters the United States music charts for the first time, with Heartbreak Hotel.
– Norma Jean Mortenson legally changes her name to Marilyn Monroe.
– The first episode of As the World Turns is broadcast on the CBS television network
1976 (Lenore is 70 years old)
– The Cray-1, the first commercially developed supercomputer, is released by Seymour Cray's Cray Research.
- Apple Computer Company is formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.
- United States Bicentennial: From coast to coast, the United States celebrates the 200th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
1996 (Lenore is 100 years old)
- The Nintendo 64 video game system is released in Japan.
- Motorola introduces the Motorola StarTAC Wearable Cellular Telephone, the world's smallest and lightest mobile phone at that time.
- Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be successfully cloned from an adult cell, is born at the Roslin Institute in Midlothian, Scotland.
2004 (Lenore is 108)
– NASA's MER-A (Spirit) lands on Mars at 04:35 UTC
– Facebook was founded at Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Now, I am not saying that Lenore lived life free of complaints or that she was always happy.  She was human, just like the rest of us.  However, she loved to dance.  She loved it when everyone (not just her family) called her "Grandma", and she performed in Ballroom dancing tounaments with zeal. (and often no competition since most competitions divided contestants by age range!)

She saw so much change over he life, she was not surprised when "miracles" happened.  She had seen so many advancements, very little surprised her.  She had seen the human experience with her own eyes. 

What I take from my experience with Lenore is that change is inevitable.  It is how you deal with it that makes the difference.