If I am not glad to be born in this age it means I probably do not realise that this morning I should be walking somewhere wearing a robe (if I were in Europe) or animal skin (probably in Africa) sweating off trying to tend to my flock, provide for my family, get the next meal and protect my territory. People or men my age (early thirties) in the medieval period would very certainly have kids and there is no telling how much work they put in daily felling trees, making hay, ploughing fields, building boats and bridges as the tools then were very crude. I could as well be with folks in Africa hunting for the next meal or trying not to get eaten by one (Lions).

I am very glad that we can sleep so soundly these days without keeping an eye open. Let's Assume that you lived in the medieval days, you would be alert as you sleep with a very sharp weapon nearby because danger or death could be taking a stroll in our vicinity and the man who sleeps too soundly might get injured, eaten, killed or worse that you could be captured and killed and eaten (You get the idea). All humans alive presently are very fortunate for very many reasons which I'll briefly highlight hereunder.

Technology is our Dummy

I feel very fortunate and glad about this as I remember early in my childhood some of my uncles would just appear at our doors unexpectedly. "Hey Kevwe, How are you?" and that's how he would walk in and stay for the next four days or more depending on when he chooses to leave. Well, there were no mobile phones then and many of my uncles weren't literate enough to write letters, hence if they were going to visit anyone there was hardly a way to pre-inform them. They just show up at the front doors. I remember one of my uncles narrating how he paid us a visit sometime ago and waited in our absence for two days as he wasn't aware that we travelled.

I also recall how we often used the postal service for letters then and postal stamps were a huge sale alas not anymore. Most children born in my country after the year 2000 have never seen a postal stamp in their lives. I am currently writing this on my bed which would have been very hard to explain to my computer science teacher back then in primary school because he would never conceptualize or believe what he has not seen.

Compare this present time now to the dark age where you literally can't take pictures, record or play recorded music,make video calls, send money, have a zoom class,shop online in your bedroom,order pizza,chat with friends,freeze your food, drive a car, make a phone call,use an elevator, watch the news etc . We use many of these simple technologies that we don't imagine how difficult life would be without them. You can start to imagine now.

The increase in knowledge

Imagine dying from something as trivial as a cough, cold or fever. Yes,these happened then in the dark ages because of the little knowledge in medicine. Someone could have a cold which could be a symptom of something really severe but the doctors then would be more concerned with prescribing the biggest firewood to keep you warm.

We currently learn from the vast knowledge of the recorded history of people who have used their lives well or wasted it based on the decisions that they made. I feel really fortunate to lay hands on the works of many scholarly great minds and learn from the marks made by government and individuals.

For me as an engineering student, I really can't imagine not having the knowledge of mathematics,poetry,history, rhetorics,philosophy,machines, chemistry, politics etc. You can imagine yourself reading one papyrus or scroll somewhere in the field with a bearded guy as your teacher trying to figure what he wrote there without any online help and with absolutely no knowledge of the language it was written in.

In fact and indeed there are many more reasons to feel fortunate living in this era. So let's just make the best out of what time has presented to us. Some of us do not know the complex technology involved in making little things like the pen, needle, matches, toothpicks, toothbrush and even our wristwatches.

This calls unto us to live better fulfilled lives than our ancestors considering they never had the unsolicited assistance presented by technology today and the they also didn't know so much as we do today.

"To whom much is given much is expected"
          Jesus Christ

Thanks for reading