What Will Life Be Like in 1000 Years?

The Year 3015

She sat, upstairs and downstairs, because the house continually changed to reflect the needs of its occupants. Mom sent thoughts through their home computer, wired to her brain and to her son, below, or above. “You’re going to be late for school, Love. Have you synced up and met your body’s nutritional needs? Did you replenish your dopamines from eating something satisfying with your mouth? That’s still important, you know! I’m coming down. Or up.”

“Gawd, Mom,” he sent. “Of course I did, and I’m busy downloading my paper, so am wired up and appreciate you not interrupting!”

He was worried though. The school system had recently been wonky, and had allowed other students to claim his thoughts as their own through the system. It had come a long way from a few years ago when they all had to plug in manually. He missed that old system at times.

His fellow students were cheating, bypassing the webs, and he didn’t like it. 

The Year 2015

We had a storm last night, and our electricity was out. “I can’t go to bed,” my son said. “The Pain Cweeper might be upstairs, and I won’t be able to see him before he sees me. I’m scared.”

“The Pain Creeper?” I asked? “Yeah,” he replied. “The bad guy with the mask and the hood and he jumped out of my friend’s closet and got him and he showed me blue and red on his nose from it, so I know he was real…” he trailed off.

He drew the shape of a scythe in the air, and put his hands on his forehead, arching from his eyes like a cape. “The Grim Reaper?” I asked.

“That one. He’s scawy.” he answered.

Last night, all any of us wanted was for the power to come back on. The entire neighborhood was black, unlit, and scary. Bedtime reading was interrupted. Life was interrupted. My little boy wasn’t able to hold his hamster because I was worried that Lightning (the hamster) would scurry under a darkened dishwasher and, without power, we’d be unable to retrieve him.

I thought about Abe Lincoln, reading by candlelight. I thought about the befores and those who lived 1,000 years ago.

The Year 1015

“Alright, son. It’s fine that you study Plato by the fire until your father comes home, but you know how he feels about that mumbo-jumbo. We’re in the middle ages now, after-all, and while a few of us hold education to the light, most of the world is uneducated and falling short, and fighting and killing to gain our peace and our right to more land. Study, and know that you’re one of the lucky ones. Study, boy, but you’ll ruin your eyes soon by the fire. The sun was down hours ago. Go to bed. I love you. You’re a gift from God.”

****

1015 and special needs

“He’s a gift from God!” she exclaimed to the man gathering the maimed in a cart to die. A priest stepped in and said “She’s right, he is a gift from God, and I will take him, and pray for him.” He was one of the lucky ones.

2015 and special needs

“Let’s talk about school services, and medication, and formulate an IEP,” the educator said. “But he’s a gift from God!,” the mother declared. “I know,” she replied. “But he’s going to have a very difficult time. He’ll struggle with language for his entire life. We’ll help him, though, I promise. I just met him, and already love him,” she said.

“Okay,” replied the boy’s mom. “I trust you. Help me to know what to do best.”

3015 and special needs

“So he’s got the xyz abnormality which we’ve mostly eliminated from the gene-pool these days,” says the doctor. “What does that mean?” asked the boy’s mother. “He’s a gift from God, after all.”

“Well, we’ll not have to wonder much, any longer,” the doctor replied. “With science and our new computer systems wired directly to children’s brains for their assignments…that he can’t speak or write… this may be the best time for him to be.”

She continued. “In science, we like to think of developmental delays the same way we used to see weakness in skin color. Pale people were more wrinkled and more likely to get cancer, and nature helped us, through the process of evolution, to grow a bit darker, each year. Especially helpful with the decline in skin cancer, as you’ve seen.”

“Um, right, but will the other kids make fun of him?” she asked.

“No. They won’t. That’s no longer allowed.”

***

In 3015, I believe that we will live in a land of Empathy and Wonder, and that we will see not skin color, sexual orientation, reading abilities or disabilities, but heart, humor, light, and laughter. Because no matter the year, there has to be laughter and acceptance, right?

A Finish the Sentence Friday prompt. This one is “In 1,000 years from now…”

Hosts: Me, Kristi Rieger Campbell from Findingninee
And your co-hosts, Lizzi from Consierings
and birthday girl Dana from Kiss My List