All societies face a moment when the world they inherited is no longer the world they inhabit.
For most of my life, I understood the land I lived in. The world felt whole and knowable. It seemed to obey an unwritten yet clear order of operations that felt familiar. There was a rhythm to life that was steady under the feet and the map of society matched the territory of our lives. It was a place where a person could believe, if they honored those who came before and followed their steps, that tomorrow would look like today and, hopefully, be a little better than yesterday.
I think, eventually, we became what we imagined the first peoples of this continent were like, settling along familiar rivers and under familiar skies, trusting that the spirit we were born into was the spirit that would carry us through the rest of our days.
Then one morning, without fanfare, a new shape appeared on the horizon.