Gratitude for Five Awesome Modern Things

I have a friend who decides whether a person is “old” or not by using the age of sixty-four as the line of demarcation. She’s a Beatles fan, so everyone who is sixty-four or better is “older,” everyone else is not yet older.

I love it when musical references become true guideposts in our lives.

One thing I notice, though, about the “older” and almost-older crowd, is the tendency to look to the past with longing, and to look to the future with fear. Even people my age and younger tend to shake their heads and talk about how terrible things are these days, and how things are getting worse.

I’ve written about this topic before, and probably will again. I think when we become people who talk disparagingly about “these days” we automatically enter into the realm of being “older,” regardless of our actual age. As soon as we stop participating in the world as it is we lose our ability to be effective in the world as it is.

There are certainly things I miss from the past, and there are current societal trends that concern me. But I try not to think of these things in negative terms. Sure, we have our share of troubles, but what generation didn’t?

In honor of the holidays this week here is a list of five things that I think are better now than at any other time in my lifetime.

1. Creative Equality – Thank you internet and computer tech! With you, anyone can make a movie, record a song or publish a book or magazine. In your face, exclusive studios and big publishing companies!

2. Healthy Food – I grew up in the days of Wonder Bread and plastic cheese. Now most people know the pleasures of bok choy and kale.

3. Diversity Acceptance – There seems to be more room in the world now for people to be themselves.

4. Social Media – I am in touch with most of the friends I’ve made over the course of my life. And I have new friends I’ve not yet met in person. That’s pretty cool.

5. E-Readers – I’ve moved a lot of times in my life. Each time I do a fully realize just how heavy paper books are.

We have a lot of work to do to correct the problems on our planet right now. I think we’ll be better able to do that work with a sense of gratitude for the blessings that are ours.

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Chanukah everyone!

Rethinking the Good Old Days

My mother used to say that memory has a way of improving on things.

So many people tell me that things on the planet are just getting worse. They want to return to the good old days. In some ways, I agree with them.

Financially, things were certainly easier a few decades ago. I hate to say it, but I think our personal freedoms have been trod on terribly in the past ten years. I hate to see Mom and Pop shops replaced by big box corporate stores.

So I get what people are saying when they long for the good old days.

On the other hand, let’s think about this.

Prior to 1967, interracial marriage was not legal in every state of our country. That’s right – you could go to jail for marrying outside of your race.

Prior to the 1960’s most banks wouldn’t extend credit to women. Her credit was her husband’s. An unmarried woman was not credit-worthy.

Prior to the passage of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, many species of birds and butterflies were being decimated by DDT.

I remember the Cold War in the 1980’s. We were sure a world-scale nuclear war was right around the corner.

So, to which of those good old days do we want to return?

Yes, things sure are messed up. Yes, we have a long way to go to become the just and fair society we know we can be. But let’s stop looking to the past and start looking to the future. We can’t ever go back to the past. Frankly, I wouldn’t want to. But we can go forward to the future. We can make our future the best times ever. We won’t do that by pining for the past. We will do that by being hopeful and proactive about the future.