BY THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH

There have been doomsayers since the day Adam lamented to Eve on their way out of the Garden: "We've got serious problems here!" The refrain was picked up by a chorus of Old Testament prophets, Delphic oracles, Medieval gypsies, and even modern day cosmologists calculating the laws of probability as to circling asteroids.

It's perhaps not known what the percentage of right vs wrong calls have been made since Adam's time. One thing though is irrefutable -- we're still here. To some that's a compellingly good sign. To others, it's simply the mathematical probability that the odds are building up against us.

Optimists are the people who always tell you to look up whenever things are going their way. Lately, though, the number of optimists is thinning, as the world enters into yet another of its steep psychotic declines. And who wouldn't be a little psychotic when you count the number of wars, terrorists, angry unemployed workers, free-spending Wall Street bankers, oh and a gazillion melting icebergs up on top of this tipsy world!

The other day as I was desperately seeking technical support from the young camera clerk at our drugstore, I thought of hiding my embarrassment by complimenting his expertise. "Our generation has to depend on your generation to learn about these new technologies," I smiled weakly. He didn't exactly smile as he replied, "And our generation has to depend on your generation for the mess you're leaving us."

A few minutes later he apologised. I shook my head and honestly replied, "No need. You're quite right." But then needing to offer some of that wisdom that's supposed to come with age, I added this: "The best I can do is tell you I used to say the same thing to the adults in my time...and they did the same in their time...and so your frustration isn't anything new. The one good thing is that this has been going on for such a vary very long time, and yet we're still here. Somehow you get the feeling we're going to keep making it. Maybe just by the skin of our teeth, but sometimes that's good enough."

I don't know if he believed me. I'm not sure that I do either. But I'll keep trying....