Is 'then' really better than 'now'?
The train is carrying me home after a cherished visit to my old childhood neighborhood in Åkersberga. My sister's eldest child celebrated a birthday, and the occasion offered a trip down memory lane.
I'm always amazed at the difference between then and now when I take such a trip. The small park, once an enormous battlefield where everyone won and no one died. The tiny hill, which took forever to climb and then rewarded us with an endless view.
The contrast is staggering.
In many ways, everything felt simpler then; there were no demands and few obligations. Now, the schedule is filled with responsibilities and bills to pay.
But is that really why we tell ourselves that things were better and easier in the past? In all honesty, it wasn't always so easy back then either. And much is actually significantly better nowadays.
Perhaps the biggest difference is that we had nothing to compare with back then. We met the challenges in the moment and dealt with them then and there. We lived in the present.
Now, we pull out the worn phrase "things were better in the past" as soon as changes don't suit us. Ironically, the 'past' we now compare it with was once a change we disliked.
If we focus our attention on what we have here and now, if we stop comparing and accept that change is constant, perhaps we'll discover that we actually have a pretty good life right now, after all.