Yesterday is Gone

I do not mourn for yesterday. I live in a wonderful present time and am mindful of something written in my schoolgirl autograph book in the 1950s - Nothing is more responsible for the 'good old days' than a faulty memory.

The arrow of time points in one direction, always forwards. We cannot go back to some time that is long gone. We can, however, transmit good values and culture to the generations that come after us. That is what eldership exists for.
 
I was not impressed by the article. I do think the effects of age are making it harder for me to adapt to changes, but I can't see blaming the changes for my aging problems. And some of the changes in recent years that allow people to feel safer and accepted as normal are great.

Though, I can't see how just asking someone where they are from is being racist, people ask me that a lot. And I ask people that, though I can understand that if they feel like the answer would make them appear like an "other" then it would not be polite to ask. When I asked the woman who was the sales person at the mattress store where she was from, she replied 'Persia'. That was good enough for me, I launched into talking about having seen cool ancient Persian artifacts in the museum. I suppose she was probably from Iran, but maybe she didn't like the feel of saying that. And I was only indulging my curiosity and trying to be friendly, so I wasn't going to zero in on asking what exact political entity she was from. I hope she didn't think I was so old that Persia would be an appropriate description for someone my age! It stopped being Persia in the early 1930s! ha ha
 
JustDave said:
Prices sometimes shock me too, but then I ask, "OK, so is my financial situation and my life changed?" Actually, many things about my finances and my life are much better than back when I could buy a car for $2,000. But somethings not so. I was thinking just the other day while prowling around in the woods. This has nothing to do with finances, but does change my life in a big way. The woods have changed. Most of the woods are gone, and what's left over is bombarded by human traffic eeking out the remaining pleasures that I once took for granted. Much of the quietness is invaded by the noises of high speed off road equipment, except for those small places designated for no motorized equipment.

This is just one thing, but I was thinking about how much I missed these past experiences, starting way back in my childhood, when my family would travel to Wisconsin and rent a cabin with an outhouse with it's own dock and flat bottomed rowboat, which my father and I would use to travel along the shoreline casting for bass and northern pike. The lake was often a glassy calm. Now those cabins and fishing experiences are gone, replaced by elbow to elbow summer homes, and speed boats towing water skiers. We can still find similar experiences, but they involve expensive flights in float planes landing on isolated lakes as far away as the Canadian Tundra.

While I'm sad, I'm also glad that I lived at a time when I could actually experience those simpler times gone buy. I often believe my life happened in the best of times. I had one foot in a quiet slower moving past and the other in an exciting digital age, but I never really adjusted to such a dense population explosion in a positive way.
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By writing about your memories, it's as if you are reliving them in your head. They will never die away.
 
Alligatorob said:
Most data seems to show that real wages have been pretty stable, or stagnant, in our working lifetimes. I am a bit skeptical, it seems to me that houses have gotten bigger and we have a whole lot of new gadgets now that have become "necessities". Things like our computers, cell phones, big color TVs, etc. It is hard to compare standards of living accurately.
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As long as the value of the dollar keeps going down, so does its purchasing power.
 
HoneyNut said:
I was not impressed by the article. I do think the effects of age are making it harder for me to adapt to changes, but I can't see blaming the changes for my aging problems. And some of the changes in recent years that allow people to feel safer and accepted as normal are great.

Though, I can't see how just asking someone where they are from is being racist, people ask me that a lot. And I ask people that, though I can understand that if they feel like the answer would make them appear like an "other" then it would not be polite to ask. When I asked the woman who was the sales person at the mattress store where she was from, she replied 'Persia'. That was good enough for me, I launched into talking about having seen cool ancient Persian artifacts in the museum. I suppose she was probably from Iran, but maybe she didn't like the feel of saying that. And I was only indulging my curiosity and trying to be friendly, so I wasn't going to zero in on asking what exact political entity she was from. I hope she didn't think I was so old that Persia would be an appropriate description for someone my age! It stopped being Persia in the early 1930s! ha ha
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I am like you! I always enjoy conversations with people from other countries; they are easy to spot because of their language. Over the years, some of these conversations have netted new friends and have provided for an interesting way to learn about different cultures.
 
Warrigal said:
I do not mourn for yesterday. I live in a wonderful present time and am mindful of something written in my schoolgirl autograph book in the 1950s - Nothing is more responsible for the 'good old days' than a faulty memory.

The arrow of time points in one direction, always forwards. We cannot go back to some time that is long gone. We can, however, transmit good values and culture to the generations that come after us. That is what eldership exists for.
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This is a good point! We need to be in the present and mindful. If we focus on the past and the future, we're not really living
fully.
 
hollydolly said:
Of course she wasn't being racist, not one little bit. When we as white people go anywhere other than our homes, people will ask us where we're from... is that Racist ?.. of course it isn't. It's a genuine query.. where are you from ?.. a genuine interest... Are we now to be put in the position where only white people can be asked ''where are you from''?

That woman went there to deliberately stir up trouble for the royal family. She wasn't even using her real name.. and further to that she's the first cousin of Meghan markles' personal Photographer..
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I like your critical thinking!
 
Nemo2 said:
The 'necessity' was directed at doing what you have to do against those who, if given the opportunity, might/would do it to you. 'Atrocities' were often the norm.....everywhere.

Kipling: "When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains, and the women come out to cut up what remains, jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains and go to your gawd like a soldier".

This is not a cotton batten world, although those who have been sheltered from harsh realities might like to think so.
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With respect, some of us who grew up very far indeed from a cotton batten world, and lived instead in brutally abusive realities, embrace compassion, and decry atrocity in all its myriad forms. After all, we know of what we speak!
 
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Shalimar said:
With respect, some of us who grew up very far indeed from a cotton batten world, and lived instead in the harshest of realities, embrace compassion, and decry atrocity in all its myriad forms. After all, we know of what we speak!
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I have no desire to stretch this out endlessly, since it appears to be a "Ships that pass in the night" scenario, but if someone, or a group of someones, were coming at you with the known intent to inflict heinous injuries/death, would you not, if you were able to, get them first, no matter what?

Would you be 'compassionate' and refrain from killing them, or take arms against (Hamlet's) sea of troubles?

C'est tout. :)
 
Nemo2 said:
I have no desire to stretch this out endlessly, since it appears to be a "Ships that pass in the night" scenario, but if someone, or a group of someones, were coming at you with the known intent to inflict heinous injuries/death, would you not, if you were able to, get them first, no matter what?

Would you be 'compassionate' and refrain from killing them, or take arms against (Hamlet's) sea of troubles?

C'est tout. :)
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My objection lies not in protecting myself or others, sometimes with deadly force, but in the rationalisation that atrocities can

become the norm. C’est ca. Some individuals have paid a heavy price for their humanity and value it accordingly. What

may be a philisophical exercise for others, is highly personal for them. Not all emotional scars are necessarily invisible. Some remain

faded, yet tangible, permanent reminders of inhumanity. There is an accompanying immense and enduring revulsion toward visiting any of that horror on another human being.
 
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Quote, often misattributed, (how ironic): "I know you think you understand what you thought I said but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant."
 
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