The title phrase is not original to our generation, but it became famous when the 9/11 Commission used it to address the “Why didn’t we see this coming?” question about the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Of course, the commission cited several other failures that led to the surprise of the attacks, but these three words have become the most memorable. How many of us—anywhere—thought that terrorists would highjack a plane and send it into a huge building? Some did, but they weren’t listened to closely enough to make a preventative difference.

This phrase has come to mind recently about our current place in history. We might think we’ve seen it all, “been there and done that,” and have cynically thought that nothing could arise that could surprise us. But I believe we’re on the cusp of a series of surprising, perhaps shocking, revelations that we don’t yet have a place in our brains for things to go. I’m not being coy, and I don’t have anything in particular in mind. But I believe that we’re going to see things in business, government, the media, and entertainment that most of us aren’t prepared for.

I think the opening salvo recently has been the P Diddy affair. While it’s currently under the radar while we are consumed with political dealings, the unraveling of the music mogul’s empire is going to continue to move from interest to fascination (by some) to a shaking of our perceptions as well as that shaking of an industry. Some thought that the original accusations were false or at least inflated, until the Cassie Ventura hotel video surfaced. Those who couldn’t imagine that a successful music billionaire could be capable of such things were quickly schooled otherwise. When phase two hits this spring, we’re going to hear a series of revelations that might seem unrecognizable as human behavior; after all, we would never do anything like that, and most of us can hardly conceive of doing the things he’s (allegedly) done.

The Epstein files, which are just beginning to be released, may well give us other unimaginable facts, not only about Epstein and a British royal (old news there), but about other famous people who have heretofore escaped notice. I can only hope the files won’t be redacted beyond recognition.

I believe our natural inclination to protect our imaginations from shock or evil is going to be greatly challenged in the near future. When whistleblowers come forth, or certain government-held papers are released, or we see the bigger picture about how Diddy was created (and by whom) and who know about and participated in his activities, we need to make room in our brains that things we may not have wanted to believe are indeed quite real and need to be looked at clearly.

Back in 1963, President Kennedy’s death shocked the nation and forced a reckoning with America’s view of itself. It had been decades since we’d had a presidential assassination, and we reacted immediately with understandable horror. His brother’s and Martin Luther King Jr.’s deaths only a few years later completed that decade’s shake-up of our national psyche. We were shaken but not settled into any new mental place.

A few years after that, the Watergate scandal shook the rest of the country and completed a growing suspicion, for those not already convinced, that our government wasn’t the paragon of virtue we might have thought. Then President Clinton’s sexual misbehaviors were revealed, shocking many but unleashing this regrettable response from too many people: “Hey, it’s OK to sexually abuse a young woman in your employ as long as you continue to support the political and sociological positions I support.” America had a hard time imagining a president behaving so abominably, but as a culture we reacted by keeping him in office and incorporating the words “o*** s**” into our mainstream vocabulary, so quickly and completely that this current generation can’t conceive of that term being used every day. To quote Jane Austin, “Badly done, America.”

Get ready for a series of unfortunate events to be revealed. Do I know anything in particular? No, that is, aside from seeing the unraveling of a great section of our entertainment industry as the Diddy story continues to unravel. What solid evidence do I have to support these thoughts? Very little, except that I’ve grown to see that some things simply don’t last the smell test, and at my age, an understanding of both history and human nature can lead to some possible ons. 

We’re about to see some things our brains and hearts don’t yet have a place for. I can only hope and pray that we don’t normalize what we see and hear as a coping mechanism, and that those things we couldn’t heretofore imagine would bring us to greater understanding of ourselves as a fallen human race, and as folks in need, in so many ways, of God.