Tag Archives: nostalgia

Billion

Billion:(n) one-thousand million.

Dictionary B

I certainly feel that one of the signs of aging is beginning to pine for former times, “when things were better.”

Matter of fact, if one could avoid that nostalgia, he or she could always appear to be contemporary, therefore potentially more youthful.

But somewhere along the line, a little grump appears in the stump speech.

  • You start recalling when candy bars had more nuts in them.
  • Or Coca-Cola cost a mere fraction of what it does now.

I heard one old fellow heave a huge sigh and explain that loaves of bread used to have twenty-three slices, and now a mere nineteen. (Who has time to count bread??)

I avoid this kind of activity like the true plague it is. It is certainly the moss growing on a crumbling tombstone.

Yet…I do have to admit that I am curious about when a million dollars stopped being a lot of money.

Matter of fact, the show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” might just evoke the response from the common man, “It’s a good place to start…”

I believe this was all caused by the introduction of the word “billion.”

I remember as a kid, “billion” was something you said when referring to an idea existing somewhere beyond the stars. Matter of fact, when you said it, you’d giggle.

“Maybe we could get a billion of ’em! Ha-ha-ha.”

Now we spend a billion dollars on toothpicks in the mess hall on army bases. (Don’t hold me to that stat. I’m just attempting irony.)

We even have people who are billionaires.

This isn’t right.

I don’t mind people having money; I just don’t know if you need a billion of it.

Somewhere along the line, to cease the insane greed for more and more material goods, we have to calm down the language of covetousness.

We need to teach our children the simplicity of enjoying five dollars because they fully understand … the complexity of earning it.

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Behind

Behind: (prep) to the far side of something so as to be hidden by it.

Dictionary B

“Behind times.”

It’s the accusation that alleged progressive individuals make about those who have chosen to be not quite so energetic in their leaping.

Here’s what I’ve found: progress is not linear.

It is not a row starting at Point A with a destination somewhere in the future at Point Z.

It’s actually a series of circles.

We roll along forward, and suddenly we dip back, creating a sphere to a former time, attempting to balance our present progress with a little nostalgia and common sense.

So when that circle is completed and we’re back to where we started, then we wiggle ahead a bit.

There are those who prefer to always be pressing on, and certainly there are souls who favor retreating to the rear, to campfires and Kum Bah Yah.

So what is behind us we will once again soon revisit and then grow tired of the repetition, to inch our way forward again.

It may be the accurate definition of the “strait and narrow”–where progress forward is so constricted that occasionally we fall back to remember simpler times.

Some people are frightened that the present technology will take us away from being close to one another and fellowshipping one on one.

Pure foolishness.

We are humans and will always need the sense of closeness … to hear the breathing of our comrades.

 

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Before

Before: (prep) during the period of time preceding a particular event, date, or time.Dictionary B

It was a sentimental period in my life, which because of hindsight, I can now refer to as “silly.” I don’t know why it came upon me.

Maybe it was nostalgia.

Maybe it was listening to too much classic rock and roll music.

But for a few weeks, I had a yearning to return to my little hometown and walk the streets, to see if I still fit in.

It became an obsession.

Maybe it was because I was so dissatisfied with my “after” that I wanted to regain my “before.” I’m not sure.

But nothing fit.

When I returned to the place of my birth, I found that the location had evolved and become something quite different–without my permission.

Nobody knew who I was. Old places that once held deep significance to me were now abandoned or turned into a Dairy Queen.

I was lost.

All I wanted was to go back to where I was before, while simultaneously bringing the financial security and prowess of what I had become.

  • Before no longer existed.
  • The present was not friendly.
  • So the future held no hope.

My hometown was no longer my home, nor was it just a little town. It was a burgeoning bedroom community of a metroplex twenty miles to the south, which was gradually swallowing it whole.

I felt empty.

But I realized that emptiness was necessary… in order to rid my soul of all the childish ideas which needed to scamper away to make room for the man.

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Artless

Artless: (adj) without guile or deception; simple and naturaldictionary with letter A

I believe the phrase is, “I’m going to date myself.”

It doesn’t mean that I’m going to wine and dine some portion of my being over a very expensive dinner. I believe the idea is that I’m going to let you know how old I truly am.

I don’t do this very often, but for the sake of this essay I will succumb to a bit of nostalgia.

The character’s name was Eddie Haskell. He was on a show called, “Leave It to Beaver” (which nowadays could not be spoken aloud without giggles).

Eddie Haskell was the smooth-talking, courtly, insincere friend of Wally and the Beav, who was constantly getting them in trouble because as soon as the adults left the room he turned into some sort of devious devil from the dark pits of hell, devising plans of mischief.

Now, I will tell you–it is possible to be Eddie Haskell without being evil. Matter of fact, most of us are taught a “Haskellian” approach to life. And here it is:

“The harder you try the more successful you’re going to be.”

I object to this contention. Here’s what I’ve discovered:

Trying hard is exhausting.

  • Once exhausted, it is very easy to lose the glimmer of your original goal.
  • Once that’s gone, you end up doing things because you have to.
  • And if you look at the world around us, there is an almost-universal grimace of compulsion instead of passion.

Life was never meant to be hard. If you get around people who think it’s hard, you should leave quickly before you, too, become jaded.

The artless way to live is a three-fold process:

  1. Learn how nature works.
  2. Don’t argue with it.
  3. Develop a plan that works within the natural order

There you go.

Most of our struggles are due to the fact that we are determined to ignore what has proven to be true.

Eddie Haskell thought he could manipulate adults by “acting nice.”

All he ended up doing was making the grown-ups cynical, looking suspicious himself, and ending up blamed for all the misdeeds.　

 

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