The 21st century is coming to my little town in a relatively big way. A bank of charging stations for electric cars is being installed next to the gas pumps by our local small box supermarket. I’d say that marks a sea change and as Bob Dylan once famously sang, you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. There was a big story on lithium on TV just the other day, and I’ve read other stories about recycling batteries. Electric cars are here and getting bigger.

It will be interesting to watch the changeover from internal combustion engines. I didn’t get to see the one when cars replaced horses, but I do know what happened to whaling, and I have witnessed the advent of television, the introduction of push button phones, the disappearance of party lines, the coming of cable TV, personal computers, and mobile phones. That’s a pot load of change for one lifetime, but it reinforces the idea of its inevitability. And if you want to know how hard it is to fight it, take a look at your own body and measure it against the youthful version. Nope. It’s just best to buckle up and look for a soft spot to land.

Luckily, in what’s left of my life, I believe I no longer need to be agitated about such things, although I still should pay some attention. I’ve found a relatively soft spot and I should be able to stay out of harm’s way. But history is replete with stories of displaced old people driven along by the winds of change, victims of war, pestilence, and famine. All I need do for that lesson is look south and try to find traces of the Mayan and Aztec empires. Which is why I take great satisfaction and pleasure in the loving embrace of friends and family, because you never know when it might go away.

John W. Wilson is the author of The Long Goodbye: A Caregiver’s Tale