The Old Man’s Lesson.
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I was talking to someone today who is in his eighties. The life he had as a young man was dramatically different to anything that I have ever known.
As a child, at this time of the year, he said that it was perfectly normal to wake up and see frost on the inside of your bedroom window. There was no such thing as double glazing back then and if you were cold at night you would put coats on top of the bedclothes.
Even when he had grown up and got married it remained much the same. In those days you would sit in front of the open fire and go to bed when it had gone out. The first house that he lived in had a toilet in the back garden. You dreaded having to go out and use it in the winter.
He was married for two years before he and his wife could afford to buy their very first wall to wall carpet! And a television didn’t come along until they had been together for another three years.
It all made me think about how things have changed so much. You would automatically say how everything is so much better these days; but is it?
In modern times we all expect so much. When we get married (if we bother to), we seem to think that our home should come complete with all mod cons. If our microwave breaks down it seems like the end of the world to us. And if the TV goes on the blink then many of us go into a blind panic.
Perhaps there is a lot to be said for days gone by. People had to save for a very long time before they could afford to buy luxuries and, when they finally got them, things were far more appreciated.
I don’t believe that we need to go back to living in misery but maybe we are all a little bit too pampered.
And lastly, in my humble opinion you need to hit this link. This Enigin blog has some really cool ideas for industries who are concerned about thier carbon footprint.