Alfred Anderson died last night

A piece of living history passed away yesterday. Alfred Anderson passed away at the age of 109. He was one of the last living humans who experienced the Christmas truce of World War I and with his passing a large piece of history has slipped into oblivion. We are all the poorer for it.

Alfred Anderson story

Alfred Anderson was one of the luckiest people, in my humble opinion, to have lived in the time and place he did. What I mean is that Alfred got to see the sweep of civilization like no human being before him. Civilisation advanced more in Alfred Anderson's life than it had for the 700 years before him. He saw the world go through so many changes in his life, at the precise time when humanity was turbocharging it's insatiable thirst for knowledge and advancement. Alfred saw us go from the end of the Industrial Age to the Space Age in his century long journey. From the horse and buggy to the space shuttle and the internet. I seriously doubt that any of us will see the kind of momentous changes that Mr. Anderson was lucky enough to see in his long and vaunted life.

I want to see the long sweep of history that Alfred did. Sometimes I think that if I live to a hundred I'll be able to get a taste of what that's like, seeing history and being able to put it in some kind of profound perspective. I don't know why it came to mind but a song by the Moody Blues called I Never Thought I'd Live To Be A Hundred popped into my head. Later in the album it changes to I Never Thought I'd Live To Be A Million.

"I never thought I'd live to be a hundred
I never thought I'd get to do
The things that all those other songs do
And they do

I never thought I'd ever have my freedom
An age ago my maker was refusing me
The pleasure of the view

I never thought I'd get to be a million
I never thought I'd get to be the thing
That all these other children see
Look at me"