Watching history in the making

While idling around on my computer for the whole day today, I realized a very important thing. We may not have realized this but we are witnessing history in the making as we live.

In school I used to think that since all the basic laws of physics have been discovered now, there's nothing much left to do in science. It seemed like a golden age when Newton and Gallileo lived. So little was known about life. Almost everything they published was history in the making, and provided new insights about the world. Charles Darwin's theory of evolution was also one such historic moment. It just completely changed the way people thought about life and god. People know now that we weren't just created out of nothing in 7 days. It was evolution.

Also, I used to think how it would have been to live in America during the 60's or 70's. The hippie revolution was at its peak. Rock bands were churning out albums that are now regarded as classic rock music. What feeling it must have been, going to see a Laser Floyd show, watching a Beatles concert or watching Jimi Hendrix perform in the legendary Woodstock '69. And there would have been times when people would have realized that these things are going to be remembered as remarkable moments in history.

And I realized that even now as we live, we do experience many historic moments. People 50 years from now will envy the feeling of anticipation that we people had before the release of every Harry Potter book. Harry Potter became a legend and will be known as a legend for hundreds of years to come. We watched Federer first win those titles effortlessly, then having to fight for it and then finally proving to everybody that he is the greatest tennis player ever. The titanic clashes between Federer and Nadal, Wimbledon 2008 final, Wimbledon 2009 final (16-14 in the final set) are all going to be things that make people of the future very jealous that they didn't live in this day and age to watch these moments in the making, to watch Federer cry after finally winning that French open.

It's a fast age. The population of the world is huge. The times are-a changing. Now I believe good artists are starting to get recognized in their lifetimes. Even those things which are not the most popular but are otherwise considered great by some end up having a cult following which I think any artist would be honored to have. I think we are living in a great time.