This is what I think about in bed

As I was lying in my Holiday Inn bedroom in Bethesda, MD this week, trying to get to sleep I started thinking about this: Imagine a guy who was born in 1790. Imagine that as a newborn baby, he was held by his 91 year-old great-grandfather, born in 1699. Now imagine that John also goes on to live to 90, and right before his death in 1880, he holds his newborn great-grandson. Now imagine that kid also lives to 90 (maybe the family has really good genes) and dies in 1970. That means that John would have known someone who was alive in 1699, and someone else who was alive in 1970. That’s sort of mind-boggling to me. Doesn’t it just make history seem, like, so much shorter than how we usually think of it? It’s like if you could just cast your memory back a little bit further than you can, you’d be back in the 17th century. I know this whole thing is kinda stupid, but it’s just so crazy, and weirdly exciting to me. Anyway.