Monday, August 06, 2007
Dialogues of the Preschoolers: Will Millions Now Living Ever Die?
by Tom Bozzo
[Scene: The author and son ride along S. Segoe Rd, heading in the direction of Hilldale.]
J: [Jabbering away unintelligbly while riding the chaser] Daddy, how old will you be when I'm [unintelligible]?
D: How old will I be when you're my age? Well, let's see... [tries not to crash bike while doing simple arithmetic]
J: NO, not when you're MY AGE, how old will you be when I'm 200?
D: [Pause] I'll be 234, big guy.
J: And Julia will be one hundred and ninety... eight.
D: That's right. [*]
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No, I wasn't ready to talk about mortality while out for a ride, or even to suggest that in 2202 I'd expect to be 234 in the same sense that William Henry Harrison, Thomas Brisbane, or Louis Philippe are (or will be) this year, or for that matter to break it to him that the oldest person ever (so far [**]) lived to be 122-1/2.
[*] John has mastered the equation y=x-2, which solves the problem "how old will Julia be when I'm x."
[**] Needless to say, Biblical accounts to the contrary are taken as fictional.
Or, the album title that keeps on giving.
[Scene: The author and son ride along S. Segoe Rd, heading in the direction of Hilldale.]
J: [Jabbering away unintelligbly while riding the chaser] Daddy, how old will you be when I'm [unintelligible]?
D: How old will I be when you're my age? Well, let's see... [tries not to crash bike while doing simple arithmetic]
J: NO, not when you're MY AGE, how old will you be when I'm 200?
D: [Pause] I'll be 234, big guy.
J: And Julia will be one hundred and ninety... eight.
D: That's right. [*]
----------------------
No, I wasn't ready to talk about mortality while out for a ride, or even to suggest that in 2202 I'd expect to be 234 in the same sense that William Henry Harrison, Thomas Brisbane, or Louis Philippe are (or will be) this year, or for that matter to break it to him that the oldest person ever (so far [**]) lived to be 122-1/2.
[*] John has mastered the equation y=x-2, which solves the problem "how old will Julia be when I'm x."
[**] Needless to say, Biblical accounts to the contrary are taken as fictional.
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It's OK, Tom. Children can be older before you break the news about the likelihood of 200-style longevity. Like say, 150. Plenty of time. Although you might like to leave the news for him in a letter to be delivered at a certain location where Michael J Fox just saw the DeLorean ... um, I mean ...
He'll see Bambi, or one of the Pixar films with what Kim calls the Obligatory Separation from Parental Figure scene, soon enough...
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