The Best Days of our Lives:
And why remembering them is such a big problem

We've all said it before, while looking back on the days we've been through. Everyone, at some point or another has uttered the phrase "those were the best days of my life" or "those were the days." It's something we all say with nostalgia, fondly looking back on the memories and places we've been. It's an ingrained pattern that most of us were even hammered with all throughout our childhoods We were told  those days were the good it was ever going to get, and it's my general thinking that that was a horrible thing to lay on a blossoming population.

We're always taught to look back on the past, to learn from it, but when we're ingrained with the 'knowledge' that those were 'the good old days', how are we supposed to look at them objectively? How can we learn from our shortcomings and missteps if we're always looking through the rose tinted lens of the fun-house looking glass? I've seen too many casualties as a result of this, constant, backwards, looking. I've seen too many people who're too distracted by what's passed them by to ever notice what's in front of them until it is behind them too.

When one spends their entire life remembering a single, past, relationship, they will forever only deepen the wound. Combine that with constantly staring at, and examining, what went wrong and every relationship that follows will only infected. Looking back at years you spent working, or the people you used to know, and more people will slip through your fingers. The message is simple: spend your whole life looking at your of things you "could have, should have, would have" done, and your promise yourself only one thing one thing - that list will get a whole lot longer.

I challenge this notion with the thinking that every, single, day you're alive is part of the best days of your life.  There were never any "good old days", simply "good days". Now is a good time, so was then, and so too is that. These are the days of wild living and laughter. These are the days of high prices and indulged vices. These are the days of running wild with the wind in your hair and, as long as you can run, today will always be one of those days. It's constantly keeping your eyes on the rear-view that promises you'll only miss out on them.

These days, no matter how violent, stormy, or dissident the world may seem, are the best days. They're the days in which you're living, the days in which you have the power to touch and shape the world in any way you choose. These are the days where you can throw wild parties, howl at the moon, or sit under the stars. These are the days you can share good beer with good people or take midnight phone calls to give emergency council. These are the days where you can fall in love, ride the high wave, eat good food, devour the good life, and let nothing slow you down.

To be real, at least for a moment, there will be days when you could make a comparison and find the past to be a happier place than the present. The problem is having that comparison be constant, or constantly staring at the past as a means to gather a perspective for the future. Look at where you've been, see the roots that tripped you up, but then stop. They'll be out there in front of you, maybe a different color from a different tree, but they'll be out there. They're insidious, numerous, and clever and, if you don't stop looking over your shoulder, they're going to get you.

Where you've been may have been happy, it may have been sad, it may have been "the best", but what's stopping you from applying all of that to right now? Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero - because tomorrow, like yesterday, isn't happening. It's not where you are, it's not where you need to be, and if you don't grab for it now, it'll be out of reach tomorrow. Put your foot on the pedal, burn your fuel, and feel the wind in your hair. Enjoy the burn of a strong drink, smoke cigarettes and talk to fireflies, have a snowball fight, play your favorite album at loud volumes - just live now.

"There were never any good old days, they are today, they are tomorrow. It's a stupid thing we say, cursing tomorrow with sorrow."

-Gogol Bordello:  From the song: Ultimate, from the album Super Taranta.