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 celebrated a birthday, and the occasion became a gentle trip down memory lane.
I’m always amazed at the difference between then and now when I make these visits. The small park, once an enormous battlefield where everyone won and no one died. The tiny hill that took forever to climb and then rewarded us with an endless view.
The contrast is staggering.
In many ways, everything felt simpler back then. There were no demands and few obligations. These days 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? If we are honest, it wasn’t always so easy back then either. And much is actually significantly better now.
Maybe the biggest difference is that we had nothing to compare with. We met challenges as they came and dealt with them in the moment. We lived in the present.
Now, we pull out the worn phrase “things were better before” whenever change doesn’t suit us. Ironically, that past we idealize was once a change we resisted.
If we focus on what we have here and now, if we stop comparing and accept that change is constant, maybe we will notice that life is actually pretty good after all.