Rather I think of a nation that has learned humility – a nation that strives to uphold the equality of all of its people and to include them in the political and economic life of the nation. I certainly don't think of restoring an America in which a single group holds the majority of economic and political power. When I say that I do not think primarily of restoring America to a position of proud arrogance in which it can impose its will on others around the world without restraint – particularly through military but also through economic influence. Our best years do not have to lie behind us. But we're not the same nation we were in the past and we cannot go back to that point in time. It's like a forty year old thinking that high school or university was the pinnacle of life and if he or she could just get back to that, everything would be great. It sees the past through rose-colored lenses and fails to recognize the significant shortcomings and failures of our society throughout its history. While there may be some aspects of truth in that, to me it is a hollow philosophy. They would tell us that America has fallen from its greatness and that to recapture that we must return to what we once were. Some by their words and actions seem to believe that the best days of our country lie behind us. I would say the same to those who seem to hold to this idea on a national level. He might even say he's enjoying himself more than ever. I have a friend who is living his life as fully in his seventies as he has done in all the years before. I want to embrace the present and look to the future with hopeful optimism. Yes, the seasons of life change and the way in which we can enjoy them changes as well, but I don't want to live my life looking backward with regret, feeling that the prime of life is receding ever farther from my present. Life is not at an end, whether one is thirty, forty, fifty or beyond. The truth is, those don't have to be the best days of my life. I can celebrate it – maybe even grieve it as appropriate – but I cannot relive it, no matter how hard I try. I rob myself of life when I choose to think that my best days are already behind me. (One wonders how accurately we remember them, although perhaps its just as well if we allow some details to slip from our memories.) But I do myself wrong by choosing to live in the past. Certainly I have some great memories of my earlier years, of high school and university days and I don't think there's anything wrong with remembering them with warm nostalgia. ![]() Our cultural mythology promotes this by refering to the time after forty as being “over the hill,” clearly implying that the best years of life come before that. Now that forty is in my rearview mirror, I like Adams am inclined at times to think of times in my past as the best days of my life. ![]() That phrase has prompted me to reflect on my own perspective on life.
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