Chaos Becomes Warm Nostaglia
I can’t remember the number of times I’ve heard “in my day” as a preface to someone waxing on how great things were in the past. An expression of longing for things to be as they once were.
Some of the people I hear this from I’ve known they came from a very chaotic, even sometimes abusive past. Yet, somehow those rough edges get shaved away and a longing for those times, values, traditions returns.
The past represents something we know, we’ve been through, we’re familiar with. The mind can remove sharp edges and let us see the more comfortable times as though they were the total existence. It’s amazing what the mind can do when it chooses to.
I find I’ll usually hear the longing for the ‘good old days’ coming from people who are struggling or unwilling to accept what is happening in the now. It’s different, unfamiliar, even frightening. It’s not easy to embrace new ideas, new things or new attitudes.
I remember a priest friend of mine describing how tradition happens in the church. The first time something new is done, people will rebel and complain because that isn’t the way it’s been done. The second time, the response is usually “oh we did that last time” and by the third time, the response is, “we’ve always done it that way”.
It seems simplistic but, it’s stunning how often it’s true. Get over the hump of doing the unfamiliar once or twice and after that, it becomes the new ‘good old days’. The unfamiliar becomes familiar and new growth happens for the person.
When change and acceptance doesn’t happen we see people longing for the past. We see this coming up in politics a lot, those wanting what they consider the good old days, the way things were clashing with those willing to accept and embrace what is developing.
Political parties literally rise and fall over this tug between the past and the present. We see the fights taking place over the tug of war issues. It’s disheartening to watch from both side as people become entrenched in their viewpoints. It makes democracy a very messy process.
I have my own quirks with the past and present. I make no bones about the fact the metric system, which Canada switched to in the seventies, is not something I embrace and most of the time I don’t use. Some see that as me being stubborn about it, and maybe to some extent it is. For me, I can relate to the Imperial system that I was raised with. When someone uses those measurements to me like Fahrenheit instead of Celsius, I know how warm or cold it is immediately. Celsius I have to guestimate or figure out eh conversion.
Do I want Canada to return to the Imperial system? No, not really. All that would do is put the people who were raised on the metric system into the same boat I’m in.
You know something? To me, that’s what makes the fights over the present and the ‘good old days’ such a waste. For those wanting the good old days, they might feel more comfortable but then make a whole different generation uncomfortable. Seems to me, we could all grow by working together on the present and let the past be interesting contrasts.
As for me with metric, well, I’ll continue to use the mix I currently use and let those who speak metric, carry on. Sort of a live and let live. What a thought, eh?
Shadowspub writes on a variety of subjects as she pursues her passion for learning. She also writes on other platforms and enjoys creating books you use like journals, notebooks, coloring books etc. Her Nicheless Narrative podcast airs on Thursdays each week.
NOTE: unless otherwise stated, all images are the author’s.
Some of the image work may have been done in Midjourney for which I hold a licence to use the imges commercially.
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Now add a few more thoughts to that #LiveAndLetLive.
We CAN pick and choose what we would have our world be. For instance, we go back to hunting and farming but we can also use technology to help track things like the growth of a herd of dear or the number of chickens and rabbits needed to feed the village.
Years ago when podcasts started I would listen to one that opened with a phrase that went something like "what works for one may not work for another". In essence this is NOT the one size fits all world we are told.
😁
you can add the thoughts on if you like.
What you've described is live and let live. It's doing what works for the individual while leaving others to do what is right for them. Not trying to drag everyone else along on what works for them.
My attitude towards the metric vs Imperial system is also live and let live. So, I don't need to add the thoughts, they are already there.
Maybe it is not about adding thoughts as much as expounding on the original. Sometimes the right words don't always come out. 😁
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I rarely consider "the good old days" as something worth waxing nostalgic over... except sometimes as a reminder that I prefer simpler, slower and less filled days.
=^..^=
I do as well and have managed those in the last 3 years thankfully