音频下载[点击右键另存为][00:00.63]Passage 65 Tomorrow Will Be a Better Day

[00:06.64]I'm 16. The other night while I was busy thinking about important social issues,

[00:13.76]like what to do over the weekend, I overheard my parents talking about my future.

[00:20.65]My dad was upset—not the usual stuff that he and Mom worry about,

[00:27.10]like which college I'm going to, how far away it is from home and how much it's going to cost.

[00:34.55]Instead, he was upset about the world his generation is turning over to mine.

[00:41.44]He sounded like this: "There will be a pandemic that kills millions,

[00:48.22]a devastating energy crisis, a horrible worldwide depression and a nuclear explosion set off in anger."

[00:57.74]As I lay on the living room couch, starting to worry about the future my father was describing,

[01:05.07]I found myself looking at some old family photos.

[01:09.55]There was a picture of my grandfather in his uniform.

[01:13.60]He was a member of the war class.

[01:16.55]Next to his picture were photos of my great-grandparents.

[01:21.70]Seeing those pictures made me feel a lot better.

[01:25.64]I believe tomorrow will be better, not worse.

[01:30.46]Those pictures helped me understand why.

[01:33.41]I considered some of the awful things my grandparents and great-grandparents had seen in their lifetimes:

[01:41.83]two world wars, killer flu, a nuclear bomb.

[01:47.19]But they saw other things, too, better things:

[01:51.56]the end of two world wars, the polio vaccine, passage of the civil rights laws.

[01:59.01]I believe that my generation will see better things, too

[02:03.93]—that we will witness the time when AIDS is cured and cancer is defeated;

[02:09.95]when the Middle East will find peace, and the Cubs win the World Series—probably only once.

[02:17.72]I will see things as inconceivable to me today as a moon shot was to my grandfather

[02:25.37]when he was 16, or the Internet to my father when he was 16.

[02:30.19]Ever since I was a little kid, whenever I've had a lousy day,

[02:34.90]my dad would put his arm around me and promise me that "tomorrow will be a better day."

[02:41.56]I challenged my father once, "How do you know that?"

[02:46.27]He said, "I just do." I believed him.

[02:50.54]As I listened to my Dad talking that night,

[02:54.15]so worried about what the future holds for me and my generation,

[02:58.86]I wanted to put my arm around him, and tell him what he always told me:

[03:04.54]"Don't worry Dad, tomorrow will be a better day."