The future of the Fels Longitudinal Study is uncertain. One can look ahead with great expectations but it is ‘foolish to look further than you can see,’ as stated by Winston Churchill. The study is more exciting than ever: more data, more brilliant young investigators, more health-related and socially significant questions to be addressed. Consequently, the near future is viewed with optimism that is based, in part, on the knowledge that what we have done in the last few decades has contributed to knowledge, met with the approval of review groups and has received support from the Federal Government and others.

It is impossible, however, to predict how long this happy state of affairs will last. The National Institutes of Health, which provide most of the funding for the Fels study, have support cycles that do not extend longer than 5 years and funding is highly competitive. Therefore, there is some apprehension. Our view of the Fels study is biased and scientific progress becomes more difficult when all the low apples have been picked. Anything may occur. As a Swedish proverb states: ‘The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected.’ Despite uncertainties, we will continue as long as possible. An observational longitudinal study becomes more valuable as its duration increases and more complete descriptions of natural changes become possible, leading to more complete understanding of human development.

I wish to conclude with three quotations that are apposite. Venerable Bede wrote: ‘It is better never to begin a good work than, having begun it, to stop.’