I like life...

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I Like Life is a song by Leslie Bricusse from the movie Scrooge with Albert Finney (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066344/).  I just love that musical.  Believe it or not, I am a fan of musicals and just due to nostalgia it is at the top of my list.  As I have mentioned, I loved (still love) Christmas time.  

As I have alluded to, I believe a lot of why we thought things were so much better in our past was for two reasons.  One, we are generally younger with less stress and responsibilities.  Our priorities were different and many times those priorities were fun.  The second item is that we generally use nostalgia as a way to compare when things were better.  We try to get back to it, a feeling, a moment, a place.  Unfortunately, we tend to do this at the expense of now.  As I sit here writing this listening to the Scrooge soundtrack on vinyl, I am awash with memories of watching this movie on TV when I was younger.  I can remember some of the excitement of the holidays, but I get more caught up in how fast all of it slips away (Side Notes: Yes, I have the soundtrack on Vinyl, it showed up yesterday after I bought it in a moment of nostalgia.  You should also note that I also have the movie on VHS and DVD, because I am that guy.).

My world was so small at times when I was younger, I thought everyone celebrated Christmas, then, once I knew they didn't, I didn't care, because why didn't they?  As a child, I couldn't fathom someone not thinking the way I thought or seeing the world the way I did.  I was immature, not great.  See ignoring the fact that people thought differently, believed differently, and lived differently is not great.  Worse yet, expecting others to acquiesce to my way of life was an extension of how small my view of things was.  See, luckily, my parents made a safe and enjoyable life for us so we were somewhat sheltered from thinking about how I might interact with others that deviated from my world view.

I realize that this post isn't fun and I will fix that on the next one.  You shouldn't misunderstand, I appreciated my upbringing very much and I know that I have a fairly shared experience with most every American (or at least a shared perceived memory of that experience), but that doesn't negate that I was oblivious most of my youth. 

With that said, I will get back to basking in the glow of my childhood during the holidays.

I'm good (MMGA) :)

- JJ

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