One can appreciate the past, but our job is the future.
One day, while riding in my folks’ 1970 Chevy Impala, my dad turned on the AM radio. I caught the last half of a Beatles song. Initially, I was angry. If he had turned on the radio two minutes earlier, I would have heard the whole thing. Then I realized that I should be happy and grateful for the part that I did hear. The car was the size of an Abrams tank and got similar gas mileage.
While everyone has a different online experience, I have noticed many people putting up collections of the 1980s. The school scene, music, entertainment. Or maybe it’s some old Michael Jackson videos (and yes, I did see the Jackson 5 live in 1974 at the Mill Run Playhouse). And there is much to say about how things used to be. I imagine that people living in the 1950s would say how wonderful the Roaring ‘20s were. It’s a human trait. We distill and remember the good. And while I am grateful that I went to school—including college—without smartphones, internet, and laptops, one cannot live in the past. It’s like driving while only looking in your rearview mirror. Eventually, you will hit something in front of you. And that something is called the future becoming the present. What we can do is take the good and the standards we gleaned from those days and use them as our yardstick against today’s culture, goods, and society. While many of our goods and services are improving, oftentimes things in the past still seem to have a qualitative or personal edge over what we have today. Miss being able to meet your loved ones right as they came off the plane?
When our kids were young, they would occasionally ask me what the best car was. I always gave them the same answer. If they had asked me 20 years earlier, I might have listed some of the premium brands like BMW or Mercedes. But at that time and even more so today, most of our cars are excellent. Sure, some get better mileage or are safer in crashes. That said, most have the once extra features such as back-up cameras, side air bags, low tire pressure warning lights, and parking radar. We have amazing cars, gas, electric, and hybrid. They aren’t as unique as those in the 1960s that tried to capture the space age or the economic optimism of the era. But they are generally fuel-efficient, comfortable to a fault, and packed with features including seat massages and completely hands-free driving (Tesla). The previous generations would marvel at our cars, while we would pine for their comfort and unique designs. Everyone is waiting for Cuba to open up so as to get their hands on those old cars of theirs.
Appreciating the moment is often one of our hardest tasks. We are either preoccupied with past issues or are in preparation for some future event. To simply block out anything not in the last or next few minutes is often hard. To sit with one’s child and be with him or her totally, completely, without distraction is a major feat. I am torn when I see a young parent pushing a stroller and talking on a cellphone. On the one hand, this is not such an unusual phenomenon. On the other hand, this is a chance to be with that child, tell stories, find out how things were in kindergarten, and the like. Before we know it, they’re asking for the car keys and a loan to start a new business. We have enormous distractions in our lives, and every app and computer program seems to need our immediate attention. Virus scan starting now! You couldn’t do it without putting a window over this article that I am writing? There is a change in route for the #2 Bus! I haven’t taken that line for 20 years. Do you really need to give me a warning while I’m trying to watch a video? Jim McMahon said that part of his head injuries from playing football includes entering a room and not recalling why he went there in the first place. For the rest of us, while we try to do our stuff, we are bombarded by noise and often go off on a tangent unrelated to what we really wanted to do.
People often note that the online world is not “real.” And that is true, but in the end, it has an enormous impact on the way we think and live. The late Dr. Martin Luther King famously stressed the importance of judging men by the “content of their character” and not the color of their skin. There was a kerfuffle last week when a former Miss Israel surprisingly found herself sitting next to the First Lady of New York City, Rama Duwaji. They started out with a pleasant conversation and even a picture. When the well-spoken Israeli told Duwaji that she was from Israel, the wife of the supposed leader of New York changed demeanor. She no longer wanted to talk and did not want another picture. One was snapped, and the Jekyll and Hyde nature of the two pictures can be seen. If one looks objectively at the situation, the Jewish woman was the same before and after the realization that she was from Israel. She did not start to smell bad, nor did her intellect suddenly vanish. The hatred toward Jews is visceral. As long as she did not know that her partner in conversation was Israeli, all was fine. The mere realization of this fact changed everything for the worse. And they claim that Republicans are racists. Whatever they say, stick a boomerang on it and send it back to them.
The ones who are truly living in their rearview mirror are the Iranians. And I’m not talking about ancient Persian kingdoms. Somehow, they think that Carter, Clinton, Obama, and Biden are still president. Donald Trump has made it clear that he will not allow the Iranians to produce a deliverable atomic weapon. Bibi Netanyahu stated in his recent 60 Minutes interview that in meeting Donald Trump in 2016 and 2024, both times just before elections, Trump’s first words were that Iran cannot have a bomb. The Iranians, in their typical Persian chutzpah, address ending the war, the fate of the Straits of Hormuz, “reparations,” Lebanon—everything except the one thing that Donald Trump wants: no more nuclear material or activity. Oh, we’ll negotiate that after you send all of your planes and ships home. Even their thorough thrashing earlier this year taught them nothing. Trump is offering them an incredible deal. You can stay in power. You can murder your citizens. You can hate Israel and support its enemies. You can scare the daylights out of your Gulf neighbors. But you can’t have a nuclear program. And the mullahs of the week? We only want a nuclear program. I think that it will go kinetic again. I just don’t know if Donald Trump will wait for the end of his China visit or possibly use it to surprise the Iranians with some new weapons and tactics. The U.S. and Israel intentionally avoided energy infrastructure and other key pieces of the Iranian puzzle. The Iranians thought they did so out of weakness; now they will learn that they were given another chance and blew it.
While nobody goes to the hospital and asks for the 1974 treatment for lung cancer, there were some things better in those days. Families seemed closer, friendships felt deeper. We have to take all of the good we got then and move it forward to make a better world.