I found the statistic I was looking for, about the world's stock of knowledge, probably the English-speaking world, probably the First World. The information was in a Globe and Mail article. According to some survey or other - you can always find a survey - the world's stock of knowledge doubles every five years. And that's not counting phone numbers and email addresses and teachers' and trainers' and dentists' and doctors' and receptionists' names, plus your car license and your family's birthdays that you have to remember. Who has time to be a polymath these days? Oh, and did I mention passwords? I can't stand passwords. I keep forgetting them and then when I change one and get a new one, with help from those drunken squiggly letters you have to copy to prove you're competent and can read, half the time you end up with two or three obsolete passwords and the computer has trouble deciding if you're you. As if I didn't know. I think the world stock of stress doubles every two years and I don't want any more. The Austrian-Canadian doctor, Hans Selye, (1907-1982) who founded the International Institute of Stress in 1975, (also memorable for his theory of altruism) gave sensible and calming advice about stress. Basically, don't worry about it. But here's something useful for would-be polymaths who are upset about not knowing everything. Don't. Don't be upset. Don't try to know everything. The secret is to have a good retrieval system. Know where you can find out what you don't know. Imagine! Selye said that in the days before Google. These days you can find everything. You have a poly at your fingertips. Isn't that nice?

If you want to see a generation gap in action, check out my grandson's blogs after you've read one of mine. He is prolific and ubiquitous and I can't understand him. That's the clearest revelation of my age I can think of. He is, like, plugged into the world. I just muzzy along, tuning into my inner dialogue, trying to make sense of what I think. You know that line, "How do I know what I think until I see what I say?" That's what writing is for me, seeing what I say. I have a thought, or a wraith of an idea and I scramble after it, trying to pin it or me down. It's quite difficult, actually. When I try to read William's thoughts, I get the world on a string, no, not a string, I guess a lifeline, a logline, a direct line? As another William (Wordsworth) said, "The world is too much with us." I'm almost at the end of mine and I have (almost) reached saturation point. I'm sorry. I see now that my readers, if any, will number in the 2s. Let me direct you to my progeny. He really is awesome.