Good ol’ days
“I wish there was a way to know you’re in ‘the good old days’, before you’ve actually left them ”
In the spring of 1985, I was about to turn 9 years old. I was really into Hulk Hogan, BMX bikes, basketball, and watercoloring. I wanted to become a comedian as well as a major league baseball pitcher. I was a green belt in Tae Kwon Do. I had a crush on a girl named Tara. A girl named Amy had a crush on me.
Around that same time, a couple in downtown Pittsburgh, Keith and Lisa, imprinted their names into wet concrete and documented their love for one another on this city sidewalk. I came across this declaration of devotion back in 2009, now 14 years ago (but 25 years after it had settled permanently from the wet concrete). I was on a road trip after a very turbulent end to a very turbulent relationship and I found myself sitting on a bench under the shade on a random street in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania… and I looked down and saw this. I didn’t wonder if Keith and Lisa were still together. Instead, I found some comfort in realizing that when people fall in love, they are (mostly) willing to believe it can last forever. It’s not naive for people to believe that a moment they are in is the best of their life… so far. If we all did this more, maybe we’d have less regret.
Recognize that you might be in the “good ol’ days” right now. Cherish moments and people and feelings in real time instead of waiting to (inevitably) do it through memory and nostalgia…
Bryan Adams - Summer of ‘69 (official video)