A friend: “The big story in the world this week is… the inevitable passing of the torch. We will witness the beginning of a new era this week, I feel.”

Naturally, he was only using the French election (NYT: “The result was a full-throated rebuke of France’s traditional mainstream parties, setting the country on an uncertain path”) in jest to refer to something completely unrelated, but it gave me a thought. Much as I love some parts of globalization and the Post-WWII international institution, this is a passing of the torch. And that uncertain recipient of the torch– maybe populist, maybe bigoted, maybe urban, technophilic, and progressive– that recipient is us.

Every generation seems surprised when the torch is passed in their lifetime, but it cannot be otherwise.

LJ blasted about its 18th birthday, of which I had apparently been part 13.55 years, and posted 473 times. I guess it was time to move on.