The Old Fashion Way\The Good Old Days

A few weeks ago my 7 yearsold daughter asked me why an acquaintance of ours, Miss Abigail has a baby and no husband.

This concept is kind of foreign to her, being seven from a 2 parent home and being raised a certain way. I explained to her that some people make different choices than others. Sometimes they're right, sometimes they're wrong, and sometimes they're just different. I told her what was right and I reinforced what we already told her and she was satisfied.

I few days later I was telling one of my co-worker's the story because, like most father's I think that just about everything my tiny daughter says or does is cute.

The first thing he said to me was, "Oh ya'll are teaching her the old fashioned way", as if we were wrong for teaching our daughter that she shouldn't have children until she gets married.

After further investigation, and conversation I discovered that this person became a father at 14, and a grandfather at 30. So with that being said, as individuals we are the sum totals of our experiences. The problem is that many of us have a tendency to make our experiences "right", and acceptable just because we've been through them. Rather than being retrospective, and realizing that many of the things that have made us are not necessarily things that we should be proud of. In other words, just because you've done it does not make it the right thing for someone else and just because the road less traveled is not a popular one doesn't make it "old fashioned", If the entire world does wrong that doesn't suddenly make wrong right.

"The Good Old Days": This is a highly subjective term. Simply because of the fact that what is good for some, can be awful for others. Conservatives, and Republican's love to talk about the good old days, or simpler times. These phrases are nothing more than "dog whistle words". Phrases that ignite nostalgia to those in America who are constantly being told that they're being displaced by Black and brown people. The "good old days" that they refer to are the decades in this country in which anyone who was not white caught hell multiplied by ten. Once again we as individuals are the sum totals of our experiences. People who are told lies that reinforce their fears experience a disconnect from reality, making days long gone seem ideal. These people seem to forget that the good old days weren't so good. Things like World War's 1 & 2, the Vietnam War, the arms race, the cold war with Russia, Water Gate and the assassination's of 5 key public figures in the same decade. Were those the good old days? If they were? Can somebody please point out the good in any of that?

I'll wait......................

PR