A little boy in a picture of many years ago. He smiles. What’s in his mind? What is he thinking about? Is there happiness in his soul, or fear of the unknown? Does he have any idea of what his life will be like? What were his dreams about? Pirates, cowboys and Indians, or maybe travels to the moon with shining spaceships? What was he hoping for? Happiness, peace, adventure, excitement? He does not know what the future will bring, and maybe he is hopeful and afraid at the same time. He does not know that he will grow to be 57 one day, and of all the love, passion, fear, despair, peace, joy, happiness that will touch his life. He does not know that he will live across two continents, and on the coasts of two different oceans. That he will have two wonderful children, many wonderful friends, and jobs he would love and passions that will keep him awake at night. That he will meet wizards of all sorts, and will work with wonderful machines that do not exist yet. That one day he will go around wit a little flat box in his pocket with the whole world in it. Can he even conceive that? Does he have any inkling of his future life through the cracks of time? Can he see any of that, even for an imperceptible fraction of a second?
I would like to tell him all of this and hug him and let him know everything will be all right. But I can’t. And maybe, behind his smile, there is a lot of fear, because he does not know that everything is actually going to be all right.
