This past weekend was quite busy.  My wife, Jessica, officially completed her Masters of Social Work Degree and we traveled to Kalamazoo to party with my Nana who celebrated her 100th birthday.  She officially became a centenarian in January, but the family got together over the weekend for one heck of a shindig.  Her three children were there along with six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, plus nieces and nephews.

You can’t celebrate her accomplishment without looking back on what all has happened during her lifetime.  She has lived through the horse and buggy era, the early years of flight, two World Wars and the Depression.  Not to mention the post war ’50s, the volatile ’60s, the economic difficulties of the ’70s, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush and now Obama who wouldn’t have been able to vote when she was born.

It all makes you wonder what changes my generation will see over the course of our lifetimes.  A child of the ’70s, I’m already a witness of globalization, computerization and 9/11.  Whatever happens with the economy and job market we are currently facing, we cannot be stymied by fear and trepidation.

In an episode of Sports Night, the plot revolves around Y2K and fear about the new Millennium.  Isaac Jaffe, played by Robert Guillaume, isn’t fearful at all.  He says (and I apologize for the poor paraphrasing), “It’s going to be great.  A hundred years ago I couldn’t vote. Bring it on.”

Bring it on indeed.  Happy Birthday Nana.