Aging into the Future

One grows. One cannot avoid it. Time drives forward, and cannot be stopped. Growth is inevitable. So I have seen over the past days:

• A few days ago, I went with my cousins to see Herbie: Fully Loaded. It made me feel dated/old/aged: As it turns out (having loved Herbie as a child), I was the only one of our movie party who had seen the original Herbie films of the early 70s. Having been born in '85, you wouldn't think this feeling would come to one so young. Alas, days pass: this is a true statement.
• One of my younger cousins was telling me all about their planned-out future. The more she told of that future as if it were set in stone, the more I thought about how mine only looks more and more vague as the days do pass. "Why is it that the older you get, the less you know about your future?" I asked. My other cousin answered, "Because your future is happening."
• Speaking of the future, which is inevitably preceded by the past, I realized recently that, if this aging or gaining of experience or living the future (whatever you want to call it) is happening to me, it is happening even more to those older than me. The future is even more upon those who have lived longer. Considering how modern technology has sky-rocketed only within the past 20-30 years, it leaves me in awe to think that my generation and the generation that follows does not really have any idea of what life was like before we existed. This is to be expected, of course--one cannot experience what one has never known--but just think of it: To learn of how things were is a wonderful thing. Some things the generation before us had are things we now miss, such as the slower pace and the peace that came with it. Everything's so fast nowadays. One click, and my thoughts are published on the web. I thought on this generation-divide the other day while my grandfather showed me pictures of my great great grandparents and their lives, following time up until present day. We are not as wise as we think if we cannot look back to glean insight from "then" for the life before us.