As we look back upon our lives we often think that if we had done this, or done that, our lives would be richer today. Sometimes we kick ourselves because we did not accept an offer or opportunity, or remain in a relationship. This is part of the human experience, we like to say, yet all we are doing is flogging ourselves in the attempt to change the past.
Sometimes we even get the opportunity to re-kindle old flames of romance or go back and take that job we passed up along the way, but most of the time that doesn’t work out as wonderfully as we thought it would. We are who we are today because of the experiences we have had. Trying to restore a 1998 opportunity with a 2016 version of us is not a good fit at all.
And here is another truth; most of the time the “good old days” were not good at all. The patina of the past hides the difficulties which existed “back then.” We may think restoring our lives to 1920 would make them simpler, but we forget that in 1920 none of us had access to life-saving health-care which could prevent the deaths of two out of five children; our food was not inspected so we were prey to all types of bacteria, just to point out a couple of the challenges. Even going back a decade in our lives, we have forgotten the angst we faced then is really no different than the angst we feel today. There is no place in the past which is better than where we are right now because right now we are stepping into something even greater than we could “back then.” Restoring the past is best left to furniture refinishers. Just saying…..
