I never met Tatiana Fallon, my niece by marriage, or her two daughters, Sarah and Anna, before pedaling up to the house in Louisville that she shares with her sister’s family. Tatiana married my nephew Andrew five years ago. He was in Salt Lake City when I was in Kentucky, so I missed him on this visit.

Like so many Mormon women I’ve met, Tatiana is a full-time devoted mother with a strong educational bent for herself and her children. Tatiana ran a political campaign at age 19, worked as a lobbyist for Citizen Action, graduated from Southern Utah University in Cedar City Utah, and hopes to attend law school. But while her two girls are toddlers, Tatiana is a stay-at home mom.

Tatiana’s a voracious reader who savors books after the girls are in bed. Right now she is deep into Daron Acemoglu’s Why Nations Fail (which I reference in Architecture by Moonlight). “It’s an incredible book. He explains how, in the South, the political systems are still in effect even after the economic system that created them is finished. Its why we’re still fighting the Civil War.”

How will we live tomorrow?

“I’m a huge historian. I believe in Strauss and Howe’s approach. They are historians who put American History into four cycles:

1. The Awakening
2. The Unraveling
3. The Crisis
4. The Founding

Each cycle repeats every 80 to 100 years; each phase occupies about a generation. My generation is The Hero Generation, yours is The Prophets. There are also Nomads and Artists.

“Thomas Paine wrote, ‘You must suffer change or die.’ We are entering The Crisis phase. We will move from a focus on The Self to a focus on family and community. The rise of narcissism and addiction is a result of our lack of community.

“As far as the world is concerned, we need to see ourselves as more united. If we can do that, we can address the big issues of our time.”