“In My Day…”
Every generation believes the world is going downhill. It’s practically a tradition. We have written records of this mindset stretching from the Middle Ages all the way back to antiquity.
Speakers of Middle English once complained that Norman French was corrupting “good English”—ironically while using French-derived words that are now just… English. Latin speakers grumbled as their language “degraded” across Europe. Those “errors” evolved into modern French, Spanish, Italian, and more—the Romance Languages.
The Roman historian Tacitus mourned the decline of “family values” under Emperor Augustus. (Family values? Sound familiar?) Socrates famously worried that writing—yes, writing—would make people forgetful because students wouldn’t have to memorize anymore. (Source: Lingthusiasm podcast, Episode 7.) Sound like anyone you know complaining about Google?
This reflex might be hard-wired into our DNA. We tell stories, and in those stories, the past often seems rosier than it really was.
So why am I rambling about ancient critics and dead philosophers?
Because the more things change, the more they stay the same.
(The original: Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose – Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr.)
Right now, the world feels like it’s changing fast—and not always for the better. Watching this kind of change unfold in real time is unsettling. The media amplifies this anxiety by focusing on alarming headlines and frightening stats—because fear sells. But the result? We’re consuming a steady diet of negativity.
The Good News
Your financial plan is current. Your investments are holding up during a period of intense volatility. If you’ve been keeping in touch with us—updating us on your life, meeting with us at least annually—then your portfolio is diversified and aligned with your risk tolerance.
Check that box. You’re doing great.
“The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.” – Ecclesiastes 1:5, KJV
Go outside. Take a walk. Garden. Move your body in the sun. Spring is here, and summer is close behind. These small acts connect us to something timeless—and reassuring.
Not All Change Is Bad
Yes, norms and fashions change. Thank goodness! Corsets are out. So are tights and high heels as symbols of masculinity (sorry, 17th-century gents). Penicillin exists. That alone is worth a round of applause.
Rules and norms evolve. We break them. Enough of us break them, and they become the new norms. It feels disruptive in the moment—but that’s how progress happens.
Even our language is messy. Technically, “awesome” and “awful” meant the same thing once—anything that inspired awe. So unless I’ve been struck down by divine wonder, I probably shouldn’t be calling brunch “awesome.” But here we are.
Sometimes it’s tempting to wish we could go back to a simpler time—cave dwellers grunting out early proto-languages, painting on rock walls about how the youngsters just don’t worship the old animist spirits like they used to.
Ah, the good old days.