Really? Was it? Or was ‘then’ when you were much younger and ‘now’ when you are an adult and must be responsible and make the ‘hard’ decisions? ‘A Simpler Time’ can be described in a variety of ways dependent upon the individual, but I think that a universal – substantially less stress – would be one of the top characteristics. And while it wasn’t always easier, the problems we had to deal with typically were. And we had parents and extended family who could be asked for help.
For those who had a great childhood, there’s a kind of haunting nostalgia that characterizes the simpler time and we all tend to forget any problems or unhappiness-es. And this selective remembering is the hallmark of your personal ‘simpler time’. For the vast majority, a kind of unfettered joy also characterizes your simpler time. And that should never be defined as problem-less. But the issues faced as a child, though somewhat gargantuan at the time, were easier to identify and answer. Today, life has become so complex and contradictory that many of us have a desire to go running screaming into the night as fast as possible away from reality.
What we need to remember is that our memory of our simpler time is somewhat rose colored. Our problems were more easily resolved and many of the ‘hurts’ quickly forgotten. And that’s OK as long as we don’t try to live in our ‘then’ – that never works, besides there’s a great deal of joy in our now’s – when we allow and look for it. The ‘grownups’ had the larger issues to contend with but I’m not all that convinced that we were particularly aware of the stresses and issues they were having to deal with.
I suspect that it is not possible to construct a simpler time in our now – though we can certainly try. It’s the gentleness of that time, the way we were treated and the way we treated others that colors ‘then’ and characterizes, for many of the luckier ones, ‘things’ that are worth resurrecting. Actually… this can be the hallmark of our behavior regardless of how others react and interact. Maybe we’ll start a movement of ‘simpler’…
…but, what do you think?
