The Good Ole Days…

The other night I woke up with Minnie Ripperton’s song, “Back Down Memory Lane” playing through my mind. Oddly, when I was a young man, the song always seemed to make me want to cry. Yet here it was again, in my head in the middle of the night for no apparent reason. You have to admit, reflections on good times from the past do seem to carry with them a certain nostalgic angst that hits you right in the heart. Whether it be lamentations concerning lost youth or a loss of any good things you have enjoyed in the past, it’s a subject worth exploring. So, the next day upon waking I played it again and sure as the sun will come up tomorrow, there was that feeling again inside. After some further introspection, I realized that all of us had glorious times we remember with great fondness. You Woodbridge Warriors know what I’m talking about. But, were those times as we remember them or have they been colored and filtered over time leading to an exaggeration of their existence? Or are those things that stick in our minds from the pleasant events in the past hanging around for a reason? The good ole days, as they are often referred to, seem to represent a time when our lives were simpler and maybe we were simpler. The memories carries with them whatever emotions we were feeling in the moment, something we are not okay with letting go. But, were those days so good or was our perspective about our lives different then? Have we changed over time, not only physically, but mentally and as such lost something of the innocence of youth? Or have we become hardened and jaded over time having access to the same goodness, but no longer able to see and feel it? Ahhh, the good ole days!

There is obviously a reason that the good Lord gave us all a memory. But, science has long since proven that our memories are not infallible. Some memories we hold onto have changed and evolved over time. This holds true for both good and unpleasant memories. Some of our childhood traumas, as they are called today, may have not carried with them the severity and harshness we ardently recall. Further, our 15 year old mind is vastly different than our older mind as we have evolved and grown and in some cases regressed. The innocence of youth has contained within it many unformed ideas and lots and lots of ignorance. Yet in some cases a little ignorance didn’t seem too bad. It seems that our perspective of life has changed over the years. I don’t think it is responsibility that has soured us as much as it is the corruption of wrong thought that has soured us. Wishing we could go back in time to the “good ole days” doesn’t account for when and how we changed. Even if we could travel back, I dare say we wouldn’t hold those times with the same level of fondness. We have filtered out all that was not good from those days. The soul crushing insecurities, the endless focus on self, the living and dying based on what other people thought of us. Those things were part of our youth as well, but we cleanly filtered those things out. Ahh the good ole days.

Obviously there is nothing wrong with pleasant memories from the past. I thank God for how I grew up, where I grew up and those wonderful people I grew up with. I still believe God placed me in a little love incubator from which to thrive and be blessed. Yet that place and time served a purpose for me at the time. Other people’s memories and good ole days may have been entirely different. Yet, I think our task, our duty is to ferret out why. Why do certain memories, certain songs carry such weight in our hearts? In the words of Emerson, “The eye was placed where one ray should fall, that it might testify of that particular ray.” In other words, there are things that hold an inexplicable connection to us that we would benefit from finding out. Those good ole days, maybe long past, hold some key to our present life, whether it be an exhortation to simplicity or a change in how we spend our time or an urging to replicate certain conditions, but for whatever purpose we feel the way we feel for a reason. Maybe, just maybe something is missing. Maybe we have let go of our dreams and our feeling that nothing was impossible for us. Maybe we have settled for a life that is less than a life. Maybe we gave up on ourselves. Since we can only live in the present moment, the good ole days must still be available to us today. Ahh the good ole days.

I think where we miss it the most is in trading our present for the past. I traveled back to that wonderful haven in England where I grew up thinking everything would be just the same. Yet, nothing was the same. Time moved forward and so did I. Yet the lovely memories of kindness and love remain with me to this day. That’s how life works. The blessings we enjoyed are always there to remind us of the blessings we can enjoy today. There’s nothing wrong with the memories. What goes wrong is when we think our goodness and gladness were reserved for those days and those days only. You cannot go back. You can only go forward and seek out what you had back then, now, today. No, you aren’t going to get any younger. But, you don’t have to get “old.” Now matter what age you are today, your mind hasn’t aged. Oh you may see an old cat staring back at you from the mirror, but what about your heart? In your heart, in my heart, we have not aged. We have learned some tough lessons. We have suffered a bit. But, that doesn’t mean we have to just give in to a terrible existence. Each day is a new day to live, to love, to make changes. You can still be that person you always wanted to be. But now you have the benefit of a ripened experience. Never wish you could go back to the good ole days. Instead wish you could replicate the good ole days today. Ahh the good ole days.

God wants you to live your life today in all of its fullness and beauty. There is a reason things hold a special place in your heart. What you enjoyed then you can enjoy today. Yes, you can! The good ole days you enjoyed in the past didn’t come about from your own doing and striving, but rather because of someone else’s doing. Today, my friends, is no different. Whether you recognize it or not, God was taking care of you. He supplied you with the joy and the fondness and He will do the same for you today. He is not unaware of what happened to you, He is fully aware. Maybe you cannot return to your youth, but you can return to the mind that didn’t already have it all figured out. You can get back to a mind that wasn’t consumed with all that is wrong with the world and instead one that can see and feel again. The world was pretty much the same then as it is now. Evil existed then and exists today. What matters is where you focus and what you choose to think about. We all have our good ole days, but those days weren’t reserved for only one part of our lives. God wants you to live your good ole days today. God knows what makes you tick and He is very good at blessing you today. Get back to the place where you didn’t already have it all figured out and you will find the life that has thus far evaded you.

“I stumbled on this photograph, it kind of made me laugh
It took me way back, back down memory lane
I see the happiness, I see the pain
Where am I? Back down memory lane
I see us standing there, such a happy, happy pair
Love beyond compare, look a-there, look a-there.”

Ahh the good ole days are still here for you today if you want them. I know I do.

Just some good thoughts…