Wow.
It's one of those things. Realizing that I've been on this supermassive chunk of rock for 25 of it's laps around the sun.
During my life the earth has spun on it's axis 9131 times.
So what events have I been blessed to see on this chunk of rock spinning through this spacious solar medium?
Whilst I was growing up and playing with my friends or with my legos or video games and not especially concerning myself with or even really conceiving the earth in general, the Soviet Union, that first social experiment inspired by the writing of Karl Marx, collapsed. In it's wake first was a violent anarchy but from that now emerges a new neo-fascist state.
American backed dictator Saddam Hussein, called "a friend of the American People" by Ronald Reagan, invaded Kuwait and became "Hitler Incarnate" as refered to by George Bush I. The United States invaded, reached an objective, and pulled out, leaving their allies, the northern Kurds, at the mercy of a very angry dictator. Many laps around the sun later, George Bush II returned to finish the job, plunging the region into anarchy and likely initiating the collapse of the European drawn borders of the middle east and a turn to more sectarian lines - which will be a major blow to the west's ability to control the region.
When I was five, the people of Myanmar held a general election and elected Aung San Suu Kyi. The military Junta didn't like that and massacred the people and imprisoned her, and then moved her to a house arrest. This house arrest, interestingly enough, ends at midnight this Saturday May 24th.
Before I had even finished elementary, the grunge movement had risen, sold out and died. My greasy teen years were spent mainly in video game world, and so while in Croatia and Yugoslavia a rather confusing genocide played out, I played Chrono Trigger and Zelda and argued about whether Square should stay with Nintendo or not.
In a region smaller than the southern part of Alberta, a genocide broke out where millions upon millions died while the world watched the OJ simpson trial.
My life has seen the emergence of two new nuclear powers; India and Pakistan.
My high school years gave me the freedom to be as in your face as I could; I spent most of it screaming for fun, irritating school authority figures, playing contact sports, getting really drunk with my punk rock buddies, hanging out in the music and drama departments and in the later parts of it, trying to meet women.
For the first time in history, a blowjob made international headlines across this entire chunk of rock.
In South America the next Marxist social experiment became underway, with the rise of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and other left-leaning leaders in neighboring countries.
Perhaps the most interesting thing I am blessed/damned to see, however, is the transformation of our climate.
From the time I was born onward, the environmental movement has grown and transformed from extremist hippies to a worldwide phenomenon.
No one would even suggest the idea of quoting Greenpeace in an actual news story back then. Today, they're comments are sought on anything to do with the environment.
All this history - and far more that I'm sure I have missed - happened since I was alive. The world continued to spin while I learned how to: walk, speak, care for others, read, write, tell stories, masturbate, get along with others, distrust authority, drink, smoke, make love, dance, take photos, and many other skills.
So it's been an action packed 25 years, and I'm pretty certain I'm just now getting to the good parts.
Carpe Diem my friends, Carpe Diem.
