Children and young adults live in the present and focus on the future, setting goals and imagining the life events that lie ahead. For them, the study of history is merely an academic requirement, a boring topic with no relevance to their personal lives.
As we age, humans gradually shift our focus from the future to the past, dwelling on the events of our own life and on how our experiences and accomplishments fit into the more general history of mankind. We begin to judge ourselves in relation to our peers, our ancestors and the broader achievements of human civilization. This expanding interest in history is partly, if not primarily, a reflection of the realization that we will soon be relegated to its pages, no longer a player on the stage of life.
In like manner, our interest in natural history tends to grow as we age. While children might be enamored with dinosaurs and Ice Age mammals, they lack the perspective of older humans. They have yet to ponder man's place in the spectrum of life or in the vast expanse of our Universe. Adults, closing in on the last, great mystery of life, cannot avoid these questions and, depending on our religious or scientific tendencies, come to a wide range of conclusions. Many of us, fascinated by the evolution and diversity of life, acknowledge our brief and insignificant role in natural history and are grateful to have taken part in its complex and ongoing course.
