The good ole days were days when cell phones didn't exist in the popularity that they do now. You knew where your friends were because we didn't travel that far from the things we liked to do, nor the people we enjoyed most. Nowadays, with the presence of Facebook, Twitter, what-have-you, we constantly want to tune into where people are, or what they are doing. While this technology is grand because it allows us to instantly connect with others, the quality of the connection (despite what our 4G service says) isn't near the quality like it truly used to be.
The good ole days used to be a time when children and teenagers went outside to exert their energy and creative nature of play. Nowadays, children, teenagers, and college-students spend a majority of their time inside. Gone are the days when we humans remembered the sheer joy that the outdoors brought to our physical bodies, our minds, and our souls. The good ole days to me are stored in the collective memory of many, waiting to be unlocked and reapplied into daily life. If only we would remember and learn to put down the devices that entertain and similarly corrode our brains.
To mentally reminisce what the good ole days were like, imagine walking down the street in your favorite section of city or town. You feel the warm summer breeze on your face, and you feel light on your feet as you make your way along the sidewalk. You see other people walking around as well with similar smiles of summer on their faces. The key difference is that when you walk near someone there is no cell phones, no iPods - the things that we place in our lives to entertain our already creative and intelligent brains. The people you pass say hello or perhaps they smile as you both go about your daily business. Think of all the smiles and/or people you might notice if you had your attention and gaze upward, instead of down in some device telling you about what somebody just watched, or what they ate for lunch. You notice the way the flowers soak up the sun. What a beautiful day to be alive! Ahh, where have the good ole days, circa the 1990s gone?
I’d say I miss the good ole days but that would make me a nostalgic stickler for the past; and remaining in the past doesn’t help the present, nor the future. I will say we have a challenge ahead of us: to remember what life and it’s likeness were like. Find time to put away your devices…you won’t be missing much if you leave it in the car, or at home for an hour. It’s a big step, but I feel you’ll find greater reward in the direct community around you. Embrace the love we all can share. This world is what we make of it and it starts in our local communities.
To the start of summer! May it warm our faces as well as our soul as we figure a way to be one with where we came from.