I recently had a discussion with a group on nostalgia. I heard a lot of comments on why looking back is no way to pursue the future. What happened in the past is just that the past.
I had to stop and give some thought to those comments. Is that true is it merely the past and there's nothing to gain from it? Looking at it from the good ole days and applying it to our current economic conditions. How true cocould this possibly be? If nostalgia is nothing more than the past and it cannot help us in the future why do we teach history in classrooms?Don't we learn anything from history especially on helping us establish the future?
After careful consideration here is what I've come up with. Nostalgia is what keeps us grounded. The ones who are paying it forward are those that know what paying it forward means. X&Y genres do not see it so easily and do not recognize it so kindly. They expect. The belief of nostalgia will not will get the next genres nowhere, why, because they fail to want to learn it. As the kids say today, the old people are talking about the ole days. Very few acknowledge how much those ole days contributed to what they have and are able to progress into doing today. Without those nostalgia thoughts, there really would not be no today to pay forward!
The more the conversation went on the response was nostalgia is nothing more than the older people trying to be self righteous and looking for someone to give back to them. The point being made about the genres X&Y were that they know all about paying forward they don't need nostalgia because they may be geeks but they help out around the community.
I do not find nostalgia self-righteousness thinking of simpler times and maybe I should restate; many of the X&Y genres do not see it so clearly. My kids volunteer also for civic things. But it does come to a point where self-righteous is what we see nowadays with many who do not recognize the generations before them as being the ground work that has enabled them to be where they are and where they are heading.
I have always appreciated the stories my folks have told us from the days gone by. I realized from an early age if not for what they went through, there is no way I would be doing or was able to accomplish what I have accomplished.
Even though my kids volunteer for civic activities and help out, ask them how they got to where they are? Simply stated they will say, Dad, those were old days you grew up in, today things have changed we do not have to worry about that, we have electronics. Is that not self-righteous? My daughter’s boyfriend one evening after inviting him over to have dinner with us sat on the porch with me and we were talking about jobs and the like. I brought up how I remember when obtaining a job was not so hard. I remember how a bunch of friends would even go on a weekend and unload boxcars of oilfield mud, and fertilizers that were in 100 lb sacks and leave at the end of the day with 10 bucks and how to make extra dollars we would go out in the potato fields and help them dig potatoes for $15 a day.
There is nothing self-righteous about that. That was the truth. His response was, Mr. Dennis, I can honestly say I know nothing about what true work is, and he raised his hands and they were softer than a baby's tush... and replied.. all I know is how to operate computers!
I am glad we were able to give our kids more, in fact, that was the idea, but it was not the idea to say hey, let us just disconnect with those that made it happen!
Self righteous is all around us, look at the interviews you go on today when you meet someone who is younger than you, they don’t want to hire you because they don’t want to be telling their mothers and dads what to do, but they have that entitlement belief, I deserve this, a good example was someone I know who went to an interview and the interviewer was in his twenties. He totally insulted this person, the interviewee. Once the owner which was the father found out he called the individual in with the son who was the interviewer and got to the bottom of this situation. The son came clean thinking he was the big shot of the operations. Undoubtably the son was discharged from his position and the interviewee, was left with some dignity.That was arrogance and self-righteous, you owe me I do not owe you!
I did have to agree that there are people out there from the ole days who
seem to view things through rose-colored glasses. As I responded I stated
I agreed that people cannot view things through the rose-colored glasses as stated. As I stated, nostalgia is great for keeping you grounded, but if you're hiding behind something and can't accept the fact that you have to embrace what is at hand today in front of you, you're simply fooling yourself, no matter what genre you come from. I do not see nostalgia as a bad thing if (like anything else) used in its appropriate manner. I use it as an appreciation for where I am and where I am headed. Like I stated, I'm quite familiar with nowadays technology and I can embrace it, it has made things in my life easier.
Nevertheless, I will state do I wish for simpler times, most definitely, will I see it in my lifetime... I seriously doubt it, but I can pray!
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