Romanticizing the past is easy; we were younger, and life was filled with more joy, and less troubles (not because life was actually better ) we were just unaware of how deep the rabbit hole goes. So yes, it's easy to look back ten, twenty, or even fifty years, and think that the world was a better place then, than it is now.

Our own kids will do the same thing, looking back as they age, and thinking that times were better, that people were better; because as a child, we can't see the enormity of the world around us. We feel safe because a select few tell us that we are safe. We may hear of 'billions' of people in the world, but we see no evidence, so the number is meaningless. Some of us never really grow out of this, and never see their own smallness in the grand scheme of life. If they do, they see it with fear, instead of wonder.

Why all the positives when looking back? And why not feel positive about the future? That's pretty simply - when looking back, we can 'pick and choose' the moments we are experiencing. The bad times, with edges of razors, are now worn with time, and tempered with new experience, and are easily overlooked in lieu of better memories. Forgiveness takes hold, and even things that are bittersweet hold more value.

But the future... the unwritten lines in our book... that open-ended list of possibilities causes fear in most people. Fear that, despite what you've lived through, new horrors await, and you won't be ready. Fear of losing husbands, wives, or children. Fear of failure. Fear of Death.

Broadly speaking, this worldview seems to be the predominate one today. The eagerness we had for adventure has turned into a fear of change, of anything different or new. Oddly, as I get older, I fear much less than I did when I was young. I know more, have been through things that would kill most people, and struggle daily with medical issues. But I can look both behind, and forward, with appreciation.

Anyone else feel like this?