Defined by the past

Sometimes I have the feeling that I no longer belong in this world. Sadly the feeling began about a decade ago when I watched helplessly as the world began to plan to celebrate the arrival of the 21st Century. I had been anticipating this event for over 50 years since a grade school teacher told us that we would live to see a new Century. But amazingly in this era that considered itself enlightened - an era of satellites, computers, graphing calculators and the internet - simple mathematics had been abandoned and the new century would be celebrated not 100 years after the beginning of the 20th Century, but 99 years. Surely, I thought, someone would correct this error. How embarrassing this must be to go forward with plans for the world-wide extravaganzas a year early. But then I read that it was only purists of the "high culture" mentality that were calling for the celebrations in 2001, i.e.,don't bother us with the facts.
Admittedly I loved the worldwide Y2K celebrations in the various countries beginning in places like Fiji and New Zealand. Nevertheless, I still recalled the voice of my teacher, Mrs. Hendricks, explaining to us why we would celebrate in the 21st Century in 2001 and not 2000. It was then that I began to have the nagging feeling that a person such as myself did not belong in this new Century. My problem being that I have one foot firmly and permanently stuck in a past that among other things defined things differently and did not tolerate fuzzy math.