Every day, after a few minutes of television and newspaper news, I wander/wonder if my parents and grandparents were more right than wrong about many things.
I remember 60 years ago hearing stories of their "good old days" and how the modern world would send us all "to hell in a hand basket". I used to dismiss their negative views as so much old people poop talk. Also, I marveled at how brilliant I was at 10, 12 and 14 years old. By 17 I was amazed at my brilliance and great judgement about everything. I wondered why my poor elders were hopelessly wrinkled with a sad world view. I saw the future as a rainbow of sparkling possibilities where peace and happiness would burst forth at anytime. I knew just another Joan Baez ballad, John Kennedy speech or march for peace would trigger a Utopian world of harmony, full bellies, and no diseases. Unfortunately, my good old days of peace, love, and eternal optimism got swallowed up by Vietnam, getting an education, job, and being a man with financial and family responsibilities. For me the bright world view never totally disappeared, it just faded a little with each year and tragic turn of history.
My parents and grandparents are long time gone, but with each passing year it seems their world view was more right than wrong. Wish they were still around to thank. Now that I approach their senior age, it's obvious they were much smarter and wiser than all their children and grandchildren.
Perhaps, as the brain and body soften from decades of life's harsh realities there is a natural tendency to find comfort in yesterdays which were etched in vitality and boundless optimism ? Maybe our final lap is more of a loop where we revisit the past and learn to better understand and appreciate ourselves and our parents and grandparents. .
I remember 60 years ago hearing stories of their "good old days" and how the modern world would send us all "to hell in a hand basket". I used to dismiss their negative views as so much old people poop talk. Also, I marveled at how brilliant I was at 10, 12 and 14 years old. By 17 I was amazed at my brilliance and great judgement about everything. I wondered why my poor elders were hopelessly wrinkled with a sad world view. I saw the future as a rainbow of sparkling possibilities where peace and happiness would burst forth at anytime. I knew just another Joan Baez ballad, John Kennedy speech or march for peace would trigger a Utopian world of harmony, full bellies, and no diseases. Unfortunately, my good old days of peace, love, and eternal optimism got swallowed up by Vietnam, getting an education, job, and being a man with financial and family responsibilities. For me the bright world view never totally disappeared, it just faded a little with each year and tragic turn of history.
My parents and grandparents are long time gone, but with each passing year it seems their world view was more right than wrong. Wish they were still around to thank. Now that I approach their senior age, it's obvious they were much smarter and wiser than all their children and grandchildren.
Perhaps, as the brain and body soften from decades of life's harsh realities there is a natural tendency to find comfort in yesterdays which were etched in vitality and boundless optimism ? Maybe our final lap is more of a loop where we revisit the past and learn to better understand and appreciate ourselves and our parents and grandparents. .
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