Hey Trish!
Do you ever miss the way things were when you were young? I am not talking about the way you looked or acted, but the way the world just seemed to be an easier better place. I miss a world in which customer service was a value and a world in which you respected the wisdom and presence of your parents and grandparents. I do! I am just wondering if I am alone thinking that this current climate change ( not the meteorological one) is not one for the better. What are your thoughts?
TIA
Bye Bye Miss American Pie in Indiana
Hey Miss American Pie,
What a nostalgic question. Thanks for making me take time to remember the 1980’s. My answer is YES! I really do miss my teenage and early adult years. Most of us would say things were simpler then, people were more friendly and trustworthy, and life was generally more pleasant. However, I wonder if that is because it truly was easier or if our brains are wired to help us remember the good times of the past. I liken this to childbirth. No woman in her right mind would give birth more than once if she truly remembered the pain she experienced during labor. Yet women do it all the time. Sure we talk about the badge of honor stories we had in the delivery room for the rest of our lives, but ultimately our brain shields us from the actual feeling of how bad it hurt!
I remember my grandparents talking with their friends at the campground we went to every weekend. They reminisced about the good old days. These were people who saw The Great Depression and WWII. They worried about my generation and our lack of common sense and good values. Take a moment to think about that. Their brains reflected on the 1930’s and 1940’s as a time they wish was back again. I am sure they didn’t of mean the war part or starvation and hopelessness. What they missed was the good memories they had when neighbors helped out neighbors with acts of food and kindness. They reveled in the pride they wore after coming home and then starting a family with their sweetheart. They protected themselves from remembering the struggles and replaced them with happy memories of days gone by.
That being said I think there is some truth to the world being a simpler time back then. Gone are the days of laying out on aluminum foil and smothering your skin in Crisco to get a quick tan. We know way too much about skin cancer. Say goodbye to a time in which you had to order from the catalog and wait weeks for the new shirt you ordered to come. Now we have Amazon orders in two days! The one I miss most is sitting outside with my boom box waiting for my local radio station to finally play the John BonJovi song I requested. Now there is Spotify and Apple Radio. Come to think of it maybe a simpler life isn’t always better. It could just be it is simpler. Maybe embracing what we have in the moment instead of wishing we could have something we can never get back is a better way to live. That could be true but I still miss my boom box!
YOLO
Trish