I was listening to my local NPR station at work, as I usually do, and was struck by todays episode of NPR's Pulse of the Planet. They talked about the Tully NY ice festival that celebrates the days when ice would be cut out of a frozen lake nearby. That got me thinking about how folks in Florida got ice? I'm sure that I'm missing something there, but it rarely gets that cold down in Key West, what did they do?
Then I though about folks that live in tropical places, say on the equator a hundred or two hundred years ago. These people probably never left their immediate area for their entire life. It seems logical, then, that they never saw ice and probably didn't even know that water would freeze. Can you imagine?
Then I thought of all that I know and all that my daughters are being taught. My 7 1/2 year old brought home a protractor from school and my 6 year old is doing amazing at reading. I know about atoms and protons, I understand trigonometry, I can tell you how plastic is molded, I understand the basics about electricity and combustion engines, I can operate a computer and a car, I know what photosynthesis is and I understand what my blood, lungs, and kidneys do. I can remember my ATM password, my PC login, how to program my VCR and how to set the clock in my minivan.
Rewind a thousand years and most folks can't read. I imagine that most can't do more than basic math, there are no machines to speak of, no electricity, not much knowledge of medicine. I'm amazed at the expansion of knowledge and that the human brain just keep soaking it in. In my average, limited brain I have more knowledge than entire towns did centuries ago. My daughters will probable know even more.
Amazing.
Now I don't feel quite so bad about forgetting things all the time... obviously it's a simple matter of their being no room left. :-)