In a hundred years no one will care

That's what I tell myself when I start to take myself too seriously.

About 100 years ago the world was embroiled in WWI. It was horrendous. The loss of life was on an industrial scale. Hundreds of thousands of men died to advance a few miles one way or the other. It was a titanic struggle. Now only historians know much of anything about it.

When I was kid there was still a lot of WWI vets around. Those old men, some with missing limbs, used to scare me. There was something in their eyes. Of course, 50 years later they are all gone. Now we are quickly running out of WWII vets. It won't be all that many years before they are gone too.

Sometimes there are evils in the world that must be eliminated. Nazi death camps were real. Other times, the rights and wrongs of it are muddier.

Recently I was reading about J. R. R. Tolkien, the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. He served in WWI and was one of the few of his college class to survive. He said that at first he believed the Germans were evil beasts. Later on he came to the understanding that there were good and evil men on both sides.

100 year ago the world was chewing up its young men on the battle fields. I wonder what wonders the world missed out on because of it. All those human lives wasted. All those creative minds lost forever. We almost lost Tolkien and the world would have been poorer for it. No doubt we are poorer for the loss of the contributions of all his fellow soldiers who didn't make it.

A 100 years later all we have is the political mess that WWI set in motion. In 100 years my life most likely won't matter to anyone. That's how it is with most people, like it or not. At least I didn't throw it away for a cause that no one will care about in 100 years.

-Sixbears