Five Years

Five Years

A lot can happen in five years.

Sometimes not much happens. In places, locations, societies of poverty things can appear to regress in that same time.

Things can go drastically wrong in five short or long years: one, two, three, four, five, the number of digits of a typical human hand-- the interval of revolutions around our sun in our sector of the galaxy; in five years things can get much worse. Just on our little planet alone. World wars can happen in this period of time.

China had some much touted five year plans in the mid twentieth century that appeared to backfire. Those happened, or malfunctioned, in the last century, after being ravaged by Japan years shortly before. Worth acknowledging, studying, analyzing, remembering.

Avoiding?

Plans and ideas to avoid. Not too bad a way to move forward. Five year plans and developments to not repeat, at least not by choice.

It's been five years since my mother passed away. Meanwhile, the rest of us survived, which is good, no complaints. My youngest who was soon to turn 3 back then is soon to turn 8. A lifetime of her own without really knowing the lifetime of my own, the older generation's lifetime, that of my mom.

And the clock keeps ticking.

What were you doing five years ago?

What will you be doing five years from now?

What things ended five years ago?

What will be new to us in five years?

Five years in the Congo of Africa can bring fortune or ruin to them, like and unlike anyone else...

Again, China, with its plans of fortune and ruin.

Wars, projects, innovations, diseases, floods, storms, and hurricanes.

Five years can make a difference.

Five years after Katrina. 2010. Five years after "the tsunami", or the earthquake. Take your pick.

The hurricane. The bomb blast. The sniper shot. The IED emplacement. The stock crash.

Five years later the recovery moves on.

The loss to cancer. The suicide. The good news of the breakthrough in medicine.

The space advancement. The new smart technology. The new app. The new device.

The new protest. The new law. The new Justice. The new movement. The new social media. The new fad. The new president, the new congress. The new government initiative.

Five years ago, five years later.

The new actor. The new cause. The new newly placed newness. Like paint.

Old and new, new and old.

Cycles of cycles.

The old pestilence. The old pollution. The old crime issue. The old corruption schemes.

The old boys network.

Old school.

The same ole' same ole'.

Five years become ten years becomes fifteen and fifteen more. Fifty years, one hundred years.

The intervals go on and on. We find more space to lay our remains.

Mothers and sons, fathers and daughters, all of us move on...

In five years. Five hundred years.

Five thousand years.

Where are you?

Who are you?

What have you been doing for the last five years?

What will you do in the five years to come?

In five years I will still miss my mother. I hope I can walk to her grave in remote southern Indiana. Daviess County; even native Hoosiers are not sure where that is.

Five more years, 2024. A new Olympics, a new hope, a new cure. A new genocide, a new terror, a new threat. A new skyscraper, a new train, a new car. A new way to save the environment.

A new power, a new disaster, a new trend.

I hope to see you, talk to you, blog to you, in another five years.

I hope that five years from now finds you well.

Older, wiser, sorer, wealthier.

Perhaps we will go to the Congo in the next five years. Probably not.

Perhaps there will be more savings and less misery in five years. 

We can avoid the mistakes of the past.

We can choose to avoid mistakes of yesteryear.

Let's make the most of the next five years.

Start right now. We think we have another five years.