With the boost the Internet has given to the interest in genealogy, a lot of people are scrolling through names looking for ancestors. I have done it. Then one day it dawned on me that all those people in the 1880 census book for the county in which I had interest were dead; actually, all the people in the 1880 census were dead. Even the ones listed as being 1/12 years old. That is a lot of dead people. Obviously, I knew generations came and generations went; I don’t think, though, I ever thought too much about the sheer numbers that “everybody” indicates. I’m here now, but I’ll be dead. Everyone living now will one day be dead. It is like shift work; for a while you are young and in first shift, then day shift, then, if an accident or disease hasn’t claimed you, late shift.  Then you’re gone.

It’s not like everyone here is gone tomorrow, but sooner or later, the world will done with us all.