Living in the Past

Ahh, the good ole days, right?

Thinking back to simpler times, when we were kids, texting, sexting...wait.
That's not what I'm talking about.

On social networks, posts appear of items that are now obsolete. I suppose its a game for some under 20 to figure it out. What on earth is that thing? You know, in the Stone Ages, when we had to get up off the sofa to change the four channels we had.

There are mixed messages for those who 'look-back'. I think many people mean, nostalgia of the sweet kind; bikes with banana seats, hide and seek, kick the can, bell-bottoms and tie-dye shirts.

The political climate has changed that. Right? Some think the old days mean, women in the kitchen, barefoot and preggo? Memories of my mother seeing a sign in Fair Lawn that read, 'No Jews or Dogs Allowed'. I don't think she would think those were good days. I don't either.

I see some of the sitcoms from that era and I cringe. Our sensibilities have changed. For better or worse.

We are who we are; technology and all. I read blogs from some of my buddies on FB- (you know, that site with all the great- cough-cough- information?) taking the time to document everything from social injustice to full-frontal male nudity.

Maybe as we get old, we suffer from euphoric recall- yes, it is a 'thing'. We remember the good, not the bad. Perhaps this is more human nature, protecting us from pain.

The decade I grew up in, looking back, was both simpler, and possibly spurred on creativity in many of us. Do we pass milestone birthdays and spend our quiet moments reminiscing? I think of all the people that have come and gone through my life, and I sometimes am amazed at the number. Some I have loved, and lost, others, glad they are behind me.

We have those pictures in our mind, in photo albums? Is that more obsolete nostalgia? Photo albums. Nope, no phones to take photos with, no video cameras in every hand, on every street...witnessing, documenting...

Time. Here we are growing closer to 2017. Imagine that number to our grandparents? My grandfather was born in 1900. Yes. 1900. What do teens think of that number now? And the USA is young. Living in England, I had a taste of real history. The church in my town has a REAL knight carved in a marble casket. This structure was first built in 1099. Huh. Imagine that?

Living in the past...
Those who forget it, are destined to repeat it, they say.
What about those who remember the best of it, instead of the worst? Silly old lady? Or smart as a fox?

There is no now without our past. There is no future without our foundations.
And, here we have come- into a new world where cyber-bullying kills people, lives are derailed in a tweet- young people are exposed to hate, threats, misinformation and a scary new world of political unrest...wait- that's the 1960's all over again, isn't it?

Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll? That was our anthem, wasn't it?

I don't know any longer where we will be in the next decade. It's easy to get swallowed up in the rising anger and ignorance. No one is left to talk face to face. We have become a generation that dreads the phone ringing, since we all text, right? (A few of us recall a phone with a curling cord. It was maddening, wasn't it?)

Now we face new challenges- or are they new?
Pharma companies greed, rights being challenged, riots, severe weather, towns flooded, cities on fire...

Rome once burned. Venice is believed to be sinking. Glaciers calve at an alarming rate.

Living in the past...
Sadly, our past is now our future, as we stumble against the same old issues, the same old ground, and the same old hate.

I think I'll put on an LP or a 45 by the light of a lava lamp, and light up a bong. Ahhh, the good ole days.

Be safe out there. It's a very scary world.