Avoid Being Too Attached To the Past

When I was a kid I remember adults around me being nostalgic about the 1970s or living in the Mid-West. As a native Californian, I did not understand the allure of the Mid-West, especially after spending a week in Kansas when the sun did not come out in the month of August. I was a Southern California girl who wanted my sunshiny mountain, and I missed it incredibly that week we were there. I enjoyed seeing family I had never met, but I wanted to see the sun too, and waiting a week was not my cup of tea. Now that I am older I realize that trip was actually a time in my life I should have enjoyed more because it was the last time I visited with my paternal grandpa, who was the one grandparent that ever really cared about me. I did enjoy my time, but his passing taught me to stop yearning for things in the past and enjoy living in the moment a bit more.

Yes, I may love the summer sunshine and I do not relish the cold winter rains, but I have learned to be a bit more joyful about living in the present, which brings me to something I have been thinking about a lot lately - people need to stop living in the past. With the economy tanking I hear so many people waxing nostalgic about the Reagan era, but even as a kid I really did not think he was the best president. People equate the fun movies and music videos of the 80s with the prosperity of the Regan era, but there were also a lot of things that were not good about that time either. I mean you can romanticize any era, but when people become fixated on the past I just think it is being a bit rosy about it. Have you ever noticed when people speak nostalgically of a time when they used to complain about? It is more productive to find happiness in the present and to seeking it out in the past.

I love books and I read every day. Currently I am even writing a novel, but on the same token, I just do not agree with those who are opposed to all writing online. Even major newspapers and magazines are now writing and promoting articles on social media, so if they can do it, regular bloggers can certainly do it. I know some people think it is really not cool to promote your writing on social networking sites, and that old fashion writing is best. However, even old fashioned books were promoted back in the day, and most books have to be advertised to some extent. We all love to read books that we can hold in our hands, but why use the Internet to complain about writing on the Internet? I say let people who want to promote their writing online do it their way, and then focus on your own personal writing. We all need to give each other a bit more freedom to express ourselves creatively, and harsh critiques can detract from this.

In certain situations, when it came to social etiquette people may have been more civil, but I really do not think allowing the poor to starve, or sending debtors to prison is all too kindly. Of course I always find it a bit far-fetched how people write online with nostalgia about an era when people lived in log cabins and did not have running water. Okay I have been camping and I know how to live in those conditions, but I actually know for a fact society has advanced in many ways, for the better, since that era. I might have enjoyed reading Pride and Prejudice a few years back, but I would never be nostalgic for an era when women had to marry well in order to secure their place in the world. Yearning for a time in the past is an exercise in futility, and a complainer button for those who think the sky is falling. There is so much more to the world than being negative and living with a perpetual rain cloud over your head. I remember I used to think there was really know good modern music, but then I became open-minded and discovered that are actually still good songs, but you have to look a little harder for these. Happiness is not about reliving the era of 1980s videos and Saturday morning cartoons, it is about not letting your present slip away.

It is now 2015, and I actually feel a zest for the future. I enjoy living in an era where we have digital cameras and do not have to pay several dollars just to have a few pictures developed. To me the digital camera is a liberating art form, and I am interested to see where the technology goes with this. When I turn eighty I refuse to be scared of the modern technology, and I will continue to be interested in the world around me. Embrace the current world and look for things to enjoy about it. You only have this one time to enjoy it, so use it well.