Back In The Day

My favorite saying, referring to the fact that everything was "back in the olden days" which I have become a part of. My children and grandchildren marvel at "back in the day" statements that means a story is coming about what they have that I didn't have. My students marvel that "back in the day" means a story about a time when I was probably their age or younger and how different it was to create something then and how I learned to do it now.
When my grandchildren enter college I wonder what the phrase will be to refer to "back in the day" and if they will have to refer to when something was done in my day is now done a new way.
Change and creativity go hand in hand, we reinvent ourselves every day by creating change. What will be simple at one time becomes complicated in another. How did I eat before microwaves? How long will I live with new health care treatments? Will I be cloned and live over and over again? Will I have new ideas with each age but remember all of my past? You are what you learned, and some lessons are harder to unlearn. Did I pass on the lessons that I wanted and unlearn the ones that were not good? Will my children feel that I have passed on to them the lessons that were good?
Always questions, very few answers. Philosophers have delved into the same questions and have continued to come up with a new answer for each age, but it is always based on the same Back in the Day questions. The more complicated we think we are the more simple we become because we all carry a back in the day lesson and philosophy that has been passed on to us that we pass on to others. So let us not remain "back in the day" but have new knowledge and creativity to share.


This is from the discussion we are having after the Noble Savage one in Art History:
In our last discussion the phrase "the simple life" came up, and this idea ties in with this week's discussion, as well. With Chapter 30, we begin the Industrial Age. There were a lot of changes going on during this period... when I prepared this discussion, I was listening to a song called "Heavy Horses" about how farmers traded in their draft horses for tractors. The singer was lamenting this: when they adopted the tractor, the farmers exchanged the friendship and partnership with their animals for efficiency. It still amazes me how much the world has changed in a short time: both my maternal and my paternal grandfathers arrived in Oklahoma in covered wagons. The world is still changing quickly today. Is it possible that we are living "the simple life" right now? What kinds of things do you think you will be telling your grandchildren about when you describe the them what the world was like when you were young?