More from the unpublished post file.

This jewel is from back in January of 2007! If you can imagine this is the place I was at 12 years ago!

I got to thinking the other day about the past. Without going into too much detail, the occasion presented itself to revisit some time from long ago. I don’t have a phony nostalgia for what has been. Yeah, my memory is like anyone else’s in that I don’t necessarily walk around dwelling on the horrible things that have happened. No, I too look backward and think fondly about certain times and certain people.

Much of that has to do with people who aren’t around now - people of a previous generation(s) who were so wonderful and loomed larger than life in many ways. I think of my grandparents, my uncle and some other people whose presence is genuinely missed.

Overall though I think looking backward is a bad thing for us. Looking back into an unchangeable past and holding onto it ever so tightly prevents us from living in the moment and trying to change our futures.

When I was a teenager, there was a big focus on the fifities. It was this perfect time of innocence and näivety in our country the way it was presented on tv and in the movies. There were films like American Graffitti, the Lords of Flatbush - tv shows like Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley and then of course the reruns from that time which were heavily syndicated throughout the 70s. I love Lucy, Father Knows Best, The Honeymooners all presented this view of a time two decades before when life was simpler.

Thing is, it really wasn’t simpler.

There were daily fears of the communist menace (as it was put then), Nuclear Armageddon, McCarthyism, Racism and a whole lot of other Xenophobia which were prevalent throughout the decade. Still, it wasn’t what was presented to us, it was a perfect view backwards sans all the bumps and bruises of the time.

Life is better today than it was years ago.

Even with things like Global Warming, the War on Terror, Trade Deficits, Higher Oil Prices, Political Correctedness among so many other things we confront, things are still better. The question is more one of whether or not we want to look at the world that way. I’m not advocating walking through life with blinders on but, rather than run around and looking backward with fondness and bemoaning the lot of our lives today, acknowledging that life is full of struggle and welcoming the challenge to make things better.

It’s taken me a long time to alter my view and I struggle each day to take joy out of the moment I live in. Rather than becoming morose or depressed about what is wrong with life, I battle with myself in trying to look at the world in a positive light, in dwelling on my successes...

You know I ended there or rather I trailed off there and now here I am twelve years later and unfortunately I have to admit to feeling like I’ve wasted much of my life. It’s been a constant struggle for me and it started as a kid and never really stopped.

There are times admittedly when depression kicks in. It’s a horrible thing depression, a great chasm or maw of black and dark that opens up within you and threatens to swallow one whole. Anyone who has suffered from it I feel a great deal of empathy for and the folks who don’t know it cannot imagine the torment of it.

Alternately, I do have perspective now... I have perspective of going through

This is a two times started and unfinished draft and looking at it, it seems really to be the perfect kind of post for this period of the year.

While I started to talk about depression when I came back the post, I don’t want to go into that at the moment but rather talk about perspective...

There has never been a time in my life when the world, our society wasn’t facing some kind of impending crisis or calamity. If you wanted to talk about that one sure thing you could probably say that no matter what there will always be some calamitous event facing us all.

The difference though when I was growing up to today though is stark and I think it’s something that makes these things much worse for people today than it did back then...

That’s the news. The whole 24 hour news cycle is a treacherous animal that does us all much more harm than it does us any good. The 24 hour news cycle if it has any analogy can best be described as picking at a scab, it doesn’t do anyone much good and slows the whole healing process.

Cable news wasn’t so prevalent way back when and networks hadn’t arrived at the conclusion that the best way to keep eyes glued to the idiot box was to ramp up that sense of drama and urgency.

It’s something to remember... it’s not a matter of not being informed because it’s always good to be informed but don’t be OVER INFORMED because it’s not healthy.