The Golden Glow of Nostalgia

This is the best moment of my life. Now this is. Now this is. That means the best moment of my life is continuously ahead of me; like the frog in Zeno’s Paradox, jumping half the remaining distance, I will asymptotically approach the best day in my life, but never quite reach it. In short, the best days of my life are ahead of me.

I know this column is bathed in the Golden Glow of Nostalgia. No one complained; no one had to.

I am well aware of people (usually men) who peaked in high school, often with athletic accomplishments (of which I had none). The second most common cliché is “my best years were in college.” Yes, I’m still proud of being Editor-In-Chief of Volume 93 of The Tech (a little too proud in the first years of my marriage, I’m told), but better things have happened since.

So, you may well ask, why does the past outweigh the present in PSACOT? My life revolves around my wife and family, who have expressed an interest in appearing here rarely, if at all. I’m left with my friends (also shy), my doctors (I don’t want to be THAT old guy, always talking about his aches and pains) and music (mine and that of others). And politics, which I now avoid because there are readers I don’t want to lose.

So, there’s a lot of past here, because I think my past is interesting; who we were is how we became who we are. If you’ve ever wondered how I got here, you’ll find out by reading PSACOT. Or you’ll get as bored with the stories as if you were a member of my family.

In fairness to me, I point you at books and movies and TV shows I’ve enjoyed, and share eclectic links from my eclectic friends. That’s the present.

When I was 17, I thought I’d never beat midnight at Crown Point with hot chocolate and ham sandwiches on Prom Night, accompanied by my date Becky and my friend  Randy (whom I rarely see). I was wrong; there’s been 365 or 366 days a year better than that ever since. I expect there are more ahead. In the words of my own song lyric,

I think our story's just begun,
I look ahead, I see more fun.
I see laughter most of all,
I see tears will seldom fall.