When is Then Now?

We still use weird anachronistic phrases like “take a load off”. Why? They don’t really make sense any more. No one’s carrying around such a heavy load they need to take it off. I don’t think we’re afraid to use direct language. Although saying “sit, relax” is a bit weird.

Maybe we like the more colorful language. It’s more euphemistic. It harkens back to a time earlier than now. Which everyone seems to like.

Not a specific time. Just… "then." Earlier. 

Things were simpler then. Then didn’t have the pressures, all the things of now. 

But what if things then weren’t as simple as we hope? 

What if then was just as complicated as now?

Now has cars, which makes getting around faster than a horse, but drivers back then still needed to take their horses in for maintenance. Saddles broke, fluids need checking, horseshoes needed rotating.

Maybe they used language of an even older generation? 

What was so complicated to them (back then) that they longed for a simpler time?

How far back does this recursive loop go?

Did the biblical Abraham hate reading bad news on his tablet as much as I hate reading it on mine?

Were multicellular organisms like “remember when there was just one of us?”

But we also long for the future. Things are simpler then too. 

The problems of today will vanish with the hypothetical solutions of tomorrow. And just as we push the complexities of the past juuuuust out of memory’s reach, the problems of tomorrow are also conveniently forgotten.

We’d rather be anywhere - any when - other than now.

But now’s not so bad!

At least that’s what all those meditating monks tell us. Focus on the present. Live in the moment. Now is totally where it’s at. 

Now has lots of really great things.

Plenty of shitty things too. But those problems will be solved (soon).

Now has so many really cool things to experience. And we can actually experience them. We don’t have to wish for it in a future then. 

Okay, I’m confusing myself now…

I got a little off topic. I was wondering why people used euphemistic language, thought it was because we secretly yearn for a simpler time, said that simpler time wasn’t so simple, and then this whole thing got off the rails.

Even the slightest censure isn’t fair here because I have no real alternative.

Tell you not to use that language? 

Anyway…

If we keep wishing for a “then” then we totally miss the now. And now rocks. 

Now we have dogs who cuddle while we write pointless monologue [like this].

Now has cocktails, good food, friends, lovers. [Who actually says lovers anymore? I’m trying to bring it back.]

Okay, let’s bring this home.

I guess where I’m going with all this is…things will get better...soon.

And take a load off.