The Limits of Nostalgia & Being Nostalgic - continued

...Continued from yesterday...

I had great parents who were well educated and would do anything (within reason) for my happiness or for my education or for my career. 

But, when I was in 3rd grade, my father told me these statement as to how he felt about me:

• “You are not worth the powder and shells it would cost me to blow your ass to hell.”
• “The best part of you ran down my leg.”

Given my impressionable age, neither of those two comments should have ever been made... so, my
memories of childhood are clouded and distorted because of that one memory.


While I was in College (mid 1960's) in the South, I wore my hair long along with jeans, T-shirts, leather
jackets, and boots while attending classes... and, was told by most of my professors that they were giving me low grades because of the way I was dressed.


At the same time, I met a lot of people, and we did have fun playing cards, drinking beer and alcohols, and chasing women at night at the local bars... we were free spirits... had few boundaries and even fewer limitations... and, we laughed all the time... but, what the professors did to me stayed with me more


Being in the military was like being in prison, especially if you were aboard a US Naval Vessel out of Norfolk, VA and was deployed at sea more than you were in port with a vehicle. When deployed, the only thing to do in port was to drink and whore around or sightsee... guess which one got our attention?


Because of the caliber of the enlisted man, you could trust your fellow sailors from stealing from you or setting you up to be blamed for something they did.  For the first time in my life, I was provided with room and board but was completely alone, away from family and friends, and without any kind of network of support, except those people I did not like or trust... because we had little in common and came from different sides of the tracks.


I did manage to stay alive and because I was able to stay alive, the GI Bill paid for all my college education including both undergraduate as well as graduate school... and, that is extremely

positive, but not really a memory on which to become nostalgic.


As far as my career is concerned, let me explain it this way... as a result of my integrity and not willing
to do anything that violated my integrity, I was subsequently fired/terminated 10 times during a 45-year period or every 4.5 years... so, what is positive about that? The only thing that could be nostalgic is my desire to remain in the South where Employee At Will States were commonplace, which means your employer can fire you anytime they so desire without giving you a reason and you have no legal recourse.

So.......... my thoughts are......... do not look back at all... instead, look forward because that is the only
direction in which you are heading at the present time or moment or whatever.


Time is linear and may be curved with ups and downs but it does, in fact, move forward. And, what
happened a moment ago, may or may not have any bearing on what will happen a moment into the future, yet to be experienced.


While it is true that all we are today is predicated upon all that we were in the past, but to give the past anymore credence than that is somewhat foolish, I would think. My days fly by un-fettered and do so quickly giving a relative peace-of-mind in that they seem not to last too long but that is attributed to age more than it is to the actual day being shorter in time... which may or may not seem obvious to you.


Negative days are quickly replaced by new days and new opportunities to experience whatever... since no one can ever really predict what whatever might be. So, we adjust as the day progresses. If, when we awake, it is raining outside, then we do stuff inside whether the inside stuff be as enjoyable or not. The day itself is not good or bad... it just is...


That is the way it is with Nostalgia... it just was...