In the original Men in Black movie, Agent K, played by Tommy Lee Jones, sits on a bench with James Darrell Edwards III, who is about to become Agent J and is played by Will Smith.
“1500 years ago, everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe,” K says. “500 years ago, people knew the Earth was flat, and 15 minutes ago you knew that people were alone on this planet.
“Imagine what you’ll know tomorrow.” It’s one of my favorite movie scenes of all time and has come to represent the distillation of my seven decades on the planet.
There was a time, about half a century ago, when I had the answer for practically any question. All you had to do was ask, and I’d be happy to share it.
These days, not so much. Take the death penalty. I used to be a firm supporter of capital punishment and accepted the eye-for-an-eye justification as sensible and reasonable in a law-and-order society.
Then a kid I knew growing up was arrested for a murder, convicted and sentenced to death. He came within five days of his execution date, but was cleared eventually by DNA evidence that not only proved he wasn’t guilty, but identified the real murderer.
Suddenly, there were frayed and ragged edges on my clear-cut answer and I had to rethink it and decide if I supported the state executing potentially innocent people on my behalf.
I believe to this day that there are crimes that justify the death penalty, but I no longer have confidence in the judicial system to get the verdict right every time.
On a broader, more historic plane, consider that it was only a century and a half ago that many people - including my ancestors - believed slavery was an institution worth dying to protect.
So, as I’ve aged and presumably grown in wisdom, I often look at my attitudes and beliefs and reactions and wonder how they will hold up to the judgements of time.
Will people a century and a half from now be astonished that I could hold such beliefs?
How are my attitudes toward people who don’t look, sound or think quite the same as I do?
It’s easy for me to be suspicious of some, dismissive of others and to be afraid in some cases. It’s doubly easy to be that way if I disagree with their politics.
A bit more than 2,000 years ago, Jesus sat on a hillside overlooking the Sea of Gallilee and preached what has become known as the Semon on the Mount.
“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you,” he told his listeners.
He encapsulated in 11 words everything we need to know about human relationships, but, boy, it can sometimes be hard to put them into practice.
So far, 70 years hasn’t been enough for me to master that life attitude, but I am going to keep working at it.