I have always worried about the inexorable march of time, and all too soon that march turned into Marvell's winged chariot.
It has been written that past, present and future are linked by the thread of the wish that runs through them; my wish is the trite but true one that most parents have, and try to make become reality: we want our children to be happy, healthy, and able to enjoy each stage of their lives.
My youngest son, the only Greece-born one, is now 30, a fact difficult to believe. When I was 30, I was married with two small children, Alexander's elder brothers. It was 1975, and in November the infamous Dismissal took place: PM Gough Whitlam was sacked by Governor-General Sir John Kerr in what has been described as the greatest political and constitutional crisis in Australia's history.
Protest was immediate: Australians, often described as being apathetic about politics, took to the streets in large numbers. I heard much later that intensity of feeling in Canberra was such that a crack regiment had been put on full alert.
But during the ensuing month, the only instance of violence was the posting of three letter bombs, one of which wounded two people. The others were intercepted and defused.
When it comes to the dismal science of economics, my mind is in the Stone Age, definitely pre-wheel, but I can easily recall that way back then Australia's problem was money: the Senate had blocked supply, and Whitlam's innovative government was powerless to proceed with its plans.
Here in Greece, as most of the world knows, money, and lack of it, is again the problem.
The general population is confused, to say the least, as a favourite Greek game of blame goes on, as the poor and elderly suffer, as politicians continue to wrangle and manoeuvre with elections apparently uppermost in their minds, and as economists favour either austerity or stimulus, default or acceptance of yet another bailout from the EU.
So far the austerity and bailout lot are winning, although realists maintain that Greece has in effect already defaulted, and winning is a hollow word to use in this appalling set of circumstances.
Hard-headed economists observing from afar maintain that both default and bailout mean hardship, but that Greece would be better off going it alone. Some Greeks, however, consider that staying in the Eurozone is necessary, and not just for economic reasons.
A prominent Athenian journalist very