In elementary school in the 1960s in Ontario, learning important dates was still a required part of the curriculum. Memorization as a skill was still admired. We learned poems by rote for crying out loud! Some dates in history of the world I have remembered from that time in the one-room schoolhouse in rural Markham. A person of a certain age can never forget 1066, 1216, 1492, 1776, 1867, 1917, or 1945, even if we weren’t alive then. Now I keep a journal so I can remember personal dates of significance to me: 1952, 1974, 1977, 1979, 1982, 1994, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2008. These are just numbers to some but when I look at them I see stories.
With search engines like Google we have the answer to questions about dates of origin, or any specific fact for that matter, right at our fingertips. If I want to know when television was invented I can ask Siri, Alexa, ChatGPT, or a growing number of reference robots who can provide the answer. I am aware of typing ‘who’ in that last sentence, as if to personify these technological tools. A recent film that humanizes robotics is M3GAN. The title character is a toy that gains sentience by bonding emotionally to a child. The movie over-stresses the fear factor when the underlying thoughts of questioning the value and control of artificial intelligence may be the key to humanity’s survival.
I wouldn’t want to date a robot. Yet sexbots, griefbots & robocops are apparently going to be the first AI helpers to be in mass production. The act of dating, in my human experience, has been problematic enough that I wouldn’t consider asking Amazon to send me a Companion (another movie I’d recommend). Film fantasies are one thing but expressing real life affections can be tricky. I was in an emotional dilemma when I found myself at fifty years of age trying to understand new rules about relationships, My first wife had died of cancer and I could have used a manual with an easy access index to navigate my life. There were stormy seas until I found my balance. It was smooth sailing once I found an amazing empathic soul. Lucky me as she has cruised with me these past twenty years. And we continue to feel like we are dating!
Currently, my bride and I go on dates as a respite from eldercare. We share our home with my wife’s 97 year old mother. She was born in 1929. Imagine that! When we talk of things she has a whole different perspective on time. In my view she hasn’t passed her best-before date seen as a warning on packages regarding freshness. She’s nearly blind so I bought her a pushbutton clock that speaks the time out loud to her. Her secret to success has nothing to do with eating dates (pitted or otherwise) but in recognizing important dates on the calendar and sticking to a schedule.
To think that in a few short years my special mom may reach the century mark. Speaking of which, the ever creative Mel Brooks just made that milestone. His films are never dated, but I’m feeling that way.
