Every now and then, I'll catch a glimpse of something that reminds me of how things used to be. A recent example is the demolition of an old hotel on the seafront near where I live, which has exposed the side streets beside the hotel. On one of those side streets, which travels uphill from the promenade, there is a smaller hotel.
Something about that little hotel on the side street, its Victorian styling and its situation, brings to mind memories of childhood holidays. I wonder if the hotel maintains a steady income, or whether it will become a thing of the past, like the larger hotel that was hiding it from view.
I visited a local club recently, and the internal and external look of the place reminded me of similar places which existed when I was a child.
It's all too easy to see the past through a filter, to romanticise the way things used to be. I'm at an age where many of my friends and acquaintances can be heard to say that things were better in "our day". I, on the other hand, would say that things haven't got worse, nor have they got better. On the whole, all we can say with certainty is that things have changed.
I realise that I'm speaking only from my own point of view, but I would say some things are better now, some are not so good and it all essentially balances out. Why can't we keep the good things, and simply change the bad? Well, think about it. Are we all able to agree about what was good, and what was not so good, in years gone by? No, we're not. What was good for one person was a terrible thing for another, and vice versa.
This is how I choose to look at the world. There is no better or worse, because those concepts are entirely subjective. All that is certain is change, and I try to embrace it. I'm much happier that way.
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