One of my favorite lines from a song, and this goes back several decades is from Carly Simon’s song Anticipation and the line is “ So I’ll try to see into your eyes right now and stay right here because these are the good old days.” It’s a mantra I have repeated to myself since I was a little kid. I have always tried to focus on today rather than looking forward to some idealized future when everything would be all right. In contrast there is Bruce Springsteen’s Glory Days which, to me, is a song about losers. Its about people who peaked in high school and spend the rest of their days thinking about how great things were in the past. I never wanted to be one of those people.
As the girls grew older I have to admit slipping into a little of the Glory Days thinking. If I could freeze time, I’d freeze it around the time they were 7 and 4- somewhere in that range, but I was able to keep moving forward, enjoying each phase with them, as they grew older, even dealing with Kayla going off to college and Shayna coming into the year she’d be going to the “big building” in high school marking her last three years with us. Even then I was focusing on making these the “good old days”.
I’m more of a Glory Days guy right now. I don’t want to be, but I find myself doing a whole lot more reminiscing than enjoying the day I’m in. It’s either that, or I’m doing a lot of anticipation, looking forward to the day when we’re all back together again. Somehow I’ve got to find a way to stay in the here and now and make today a “good old day”. That’s going to take some work.
