Published on 12, July, 2020
I've borrowed this question from something intimated in another thread.
Do you think life has improved for you as you have grown older?
Is it because society has changed or you/your life have changed or a combination?
There was a comparison in another thread with 1980.
I realise some of the readers here won't even have been born then!
I could write a long list of ways in which my life has improved since 1980, both on a personal level and on a 'society' level.
Where 'society' is concerned, the invention of the internet has made me much less isolated, much more knowledgeable, much more in control of my health and not at the mercy of the NHS.
I wouldn't know about my autism and many other things without it.
Also, mobile phones/texting and email mean that I no longer have to make phone calls (including from phone boxes!).
I could go on but I might even bore myself.
There is really very little I miss about 1980, except perhaps a quieter pace of life in general.
It's an interesting question and we all have a past, no matter how far back it goes.
How is it for you.
Better or worse?
That is such a complex question, I've been putting off answering and still don't really know. I thought I'd write a response anyway and see what comes out!
Some things about my life have improved with age. I didn't enjoy school, although I didn't realise how much I disliked it until I left! I love learning, but college and uni and even just my own home are better places for that in many ways. Of course I was bullied at school, I was a weird kid. But I did have friends, some of whom are still friends now though I don't see them often.
But I got arthritis at around age 20 so that was not better! I had to leave uni which I had been mostly enjoying and basically go back to being a child, although at least without school. My late 20s I was doing a degree I loved so that was good. My early 30s I was doing an MA I loved too and I got saved which is the best, although it meant I got dumped, I got to live in Norway for 6 months which was a highlight of my life. Getting married and doing my PhD was great until my breakdown which meant I couldn't finish it so that was Not Good.
Since then my energy levels have been appalling, although the dip was a few years ago and then I started exercising which did help, but not as much as I hoped. I discovered my autism 2 years ago and knowing that has helped too. I am not especially enjoying getting older, heading for the menopause, eyesight getting worse etc. but I do love riding my trike and learning languages, so it's a mixed bag.
I reckon my best time which i would go back to would be that time in Norway or the first year of marriage. Especially now knowing about my autism, which might have helped me avoid that massive PhD burnout.
I sometimes think about what I would say to a past me if I could send a message, or how i would do things differently if I woke up back in my own past, depending on how much i remembered about my life now.
As for society, that is harder. I have enjoyed the internet since its early days, before windows, I used DOS newsgroups. With my physical disability the web has always been a place i could connect with people. When I imagine going back in my timeline, not having the web is one of the things I think would be hard, although actually i do think it was probably better to be a kid without it.
Some things have improved, some have disimproved. I do wonder how much we have left, so many things in our society seem unsustainable, how much longer can it last without breaking completely? But at least I can trust God and not worry about that one!