The good old days

Do not say,
“Why were the former days better than these?”
For you do not inquire wisely concerning this. - Ecclesiastes 7:10

We see a lot about the ‘good old days.’ We always have, but in this day of social media it seems like we see it all the time. Some of these are fun and bring up warm nostalgic memories while some brag about how we survived all kinds of childhood activities that are now supposed to be bad for us. At the very best, these memes have a way on only focusing on the positives. While there are lot of good things, the 50s and 60s were also the days of polio and diphtheria and measles and ‘coloured only’ water fountains and obvious sexism and all sorts of things we don’t like to remember.

The truth is that the ‘good old days’ are hardly ever that good. Every age has its problems and always and has. The good old days were also the ‘bad old days.’

That’s what Solomon is saying here. Don’t say ‘the former days are better than these, because you don’t know what you were talking about.

This a side of ‘forgetting those things which are behind’ we don’t often think about. Even if those days were as great as we would like them to be, they are gone and we can’t get them back.

What’s done is done. Sure, we can learn some lessons from history, but we can’t focus on the past. We need to keep pressing on in the world we live in today. We can’t live in those marvellous wonder years even when we can enjoy the memories of them.

Instead of focusing on the good old days, maybe we are ought to look at the great days to come.