As graduates of Ohio Wesleyan, you follow a rich and renowned tradition. Let me thank you, Richard, for really, a wonderful opportunity to see your alma mater and to have a few words to address to this wonderful class. Richard is about to celebrate his 30th reunion, and I can tell you from the comments we had a few moments ago, he's looking back with great nostalgia and he can't believe that three decades have passed since he also walked down that very same path and looked into the eyes of his faculty members as well. That really is the charge that we offer you as well, to reach beyond your immediate frame of reference into a world that has truly become a global village. Today technology has reduced oceans to mere ponds.
Distant countries are now almost as close as neighboring counties.
The world is not much bigger than a small ball spinning on the finger of science. More than two decades ago, author Alvin Toeffler warned us that we had entered the age of future shock, where time was speeded up by events, and our culture and traditions were being shaken in the hurricane winds of change. Toeffler noted that if the last 50,000 years of man's existence were divided into lifetimes of approximately 62 years each, there have been about 800 lifetimes, of which 650 have been spent in caves. Only during the last seven lifetimes has it been possible to communicate effectively from one person to another, as writing has made it possible to do. Only during the last six lifetimes did masses of men ever see a printed word.