So 20th Century

Time flies whether or not you're having fun

Old Father Time attached to the Time Ball Buildings in Leeds, England.

A couple weeks ago, I went to see the latest installment of the Rocky saga, Creed III. (I thoroughly enjoyed it, notwithstanding the absence of Sylvester Stallone, in a dispute with producer Irwin Winkler—Michael B. Jordan once again carries the film nicely.) The movie begins with a flashback to 2002—which, we’re given to understand, was a Long Time Ago. I found myself distracted by this narrative device even as I watched the film. How could 2002 be a long time ago? It was the 21^st century. Anything after 2001 is pretty much yesterday, right?

You’re chuckling at me. I’m chuckling at myself.

I mean, I know we’re decades into the “new” century. I have a nearly grown daughter who was born in it. The students I teach are Obama-era babies. This time a century ago, Jay Gatsby had already had his summer showdown in The Great Gatsby, which is set in 1922. That was a quintessentially 20^th-century book. Just as Creed III will be as a 21^st-century film, even if its roots are in a 20^th-century saga (and the 19^th-century logic of Horatio Alger stories). It’s past time for me to get in touch with reality.

You know how it is. The decades of our youth are imprinted with granular clarity. I can recite the dates and details of all kinds of songs and movies from the 1970s and 80s. The 1990s are a little less clear, in part because I was knee-deep in the work of the parenting business (Disney movies are my primary marker, along with Shrek and The Incredibles). The years after that kinda run together.

When you step back, you realize it’s been kind of a rough century. Terrorist attacks, foreign wars, stock market crash, pandemic. The 20^th century was no picnic by any means, but most of the really horrific stuff happened in the first half of it. Even those of us alive today who were born in that half came of age in a nation of prosperity and progress, notwithstanding the social upheavals, many of which had positive outcomes, that we refer to in shorthand as “the sixties.” The closing decades of the century in particular were notable for their relative economic and geopolitical stability.

There are some serious limits to painting time with such broad strokes. For one thing, it misses a lot of texture. The AIDS crisis of the early eighties, for example, was a shattering event for some, while the advent of Facebook in the late 2000s was deeply exciting for others. (Though this evokes a sense of wonder: remember when the Internet was a source of hopeful anticipation rather than one of anger and dread?) The clocks of our personal lives toward necessarily synchronize with the public calendar, whether as a matter of speed or our fortunes in a given moment or time.

One thing I know for sure. Even if, God willing, I manage to live for another 14 years, after which I will have been alive longer in the 2000s than the 1900s, I will always be a 20^th-century man. And will be seen as such. The challenge will be to be alive in the world as it is, for better and worse. I suspect it will be harder to grapple with the better than the worse because our natural inclination will be to favor the familiar. Still, I hope I’ll recognize good things when I see them. Really: I’ve got nothing better to do with my time. Something to consider while riding in a driverless car.