ch- ch- ch- changes......

i got an e mail from a young friend of mine the other day- a lovely note, the theme of which was "wasn't it interesting how perceptions change." It is indeed. As someone once said, the only constant is change.

I remember when I was in sixth grade, we took a field trip into New York to see 2001; a space odyssey. BIG screen , 70 mm, the whole deal.

What was I? 12 years old? Needless to say I had no idea what was going on. If I remember correctly in preparation I had read the paperback edition of the book . Still no idea.

Since then I have seen that movie at least 15 times. Big screen, small screen, TV. Each time I see it I'm flooded with ideas. It has proven to be constantly challenging and provocative. In the interest of full disclosure I will tell you that my pal Doc and I went to see it once and I fell asleep, but Hey!, it was a late show and we had worked overtime and then went straight to the theater ...

Here it is over 40 years later and I still have no clue what's going on during the last half hour. It's okay to be confused, not everything should be tied up with a bow and hand delivered. Maybe the next time I see it I'll have some ideas about what's up with that big baby.

There is one moment in that movie that I adore, takes my breath away every time I see it. The apes have discovered that they can use bones as tools , as weapons. One of the apes tosses a bone it the air, the camera follows the bone and then a cut to a space craft in orbit.

One cut moves us from the dawn of man to the future. One moment leads to the next as if nothing in between matters.

Genius.

cut to: the uprising in Egypt, which I will not pretend to understand for a second, Oddly enough I was having a conversation a few months back and we were talking about how amazing it was that Egypt had avoided getting dragged into the most recent mid east horror show. ooops.

I was listening to a report on the radio they were talking about how the protesters didn't have weapons so they were pulling up paving stones and making clubs to use in the uprising.

In the blink of an eye, we can jump back from the future .