These are the good ol' days

Don’t get me wrong, it’s hard to recognize it at the time…. But from experience, it seems so often (and predictable) that later on, many of us will look back at the past as the “good ol’ days”. My Father has said that about times past when he was in a Portuguese dance band, called Azores ‘73. And I often do it myself when I think back to when I was in past bands that I was really fond of playing in, particularly Portuguese dance bands. Growing up with that type of music, it became an important goal to be able to play in my own band like that, since I looked up to my Father, cousins and uncles who played in bands like that when I was growing up.

Now, I certainly do miss performing regularly in those types of groups, but I’ve also foraged my own music history by getting so much experience playing in other types of bands over the years that were not just Portuguese style dance groups. I’ve enjoyed all of them for different reasons, even though my primary heritage is of the Portuguese persuasion.

And yet, always looked back at days long gone as a time when things were “better” is not necessarily the best thing for anyone really. I don’t think so anyway. That is, after all, why we have “leaders” who are trying to “Make America Great Again”, implying that things were definitely better during those “Good Ol’ Days”. How does one even measure that? When do we get to a place where we are as “Great” as we were before? It’s a fool’s errand. The best we can do is strive to improve at every moment and to look at FACTS not just judging our feelings. Our political discourse decries “snowflakes” as being liberals who just want to feel good all the time and overly politically correct. I would argue that the very same conservatives who hate these so-called snowflakes are actually the ones that rely too heavily on how they feel to gauge the direction and or greatness of our society (specifically American society).

Look at facts, not just at feelings. We should look at how united we are to come to a conclusion about the state of our time and rather than only reminiscing about those good ol’ days, looking more closely at how we can improve each other’s lives now.