In folklore and myths the gods could do anything –
traveling by magical means they whisked through the air
materializing wherever they chose
to do anything they wanted
be it love, lust, kindness or war.
Today, at the base of Mt. Olympus
we have high tension wires more powerful
than lightning bolts thrown by an angry Zeus.
Power lines carry the miracle of electricity
from power plants to homes, turn night into day,
give us distant viewing of actions on continents far away,
use mysterious boxes to convert languages one for another,
and give us information more extensive
than any one human brain can hold.
I can see these things, not in a dream
but from a wondrous, air conditioned chariot
called a tour bus, transferring
my friends and me through the countryside.
Outside, our faces are blurred by speed
and distorted by glare
of an invisible barrier we call a window.
We dream today of exceeding our abilities
the way our forefathers dreamed of exceeding theirs.
Today, we live more amazing lives
than the ancients could ever have dreamed.
Tomorrow, we step into our “time that is to come”
where our descendants will live
in ways we have not yet imagined.
They will chuckle and shake their heads
at how primitively we lived.
