Ever so often, I hear some people cry out for the “good old days” – days of tranquility, chasteness, courtesies, and chivalry. I know where they’re coming from, but I’ve got news. The good old days can be had right here today. There was never a time in history (other than in early Creation, if you believe in that) when the days were just all good old days.

Take America, for example. The so-called good old days when all was allegedly harmonious did not include a whole segment of the population. And what chivalry was there in those days, anyway, when a woman had to give up her seat and move to the back of the bus because of her pigmentation?

What good old days were there during colonialism in Africa, Asia, and the Americas? Good for kings and queens and landed gentry? How about for the colonized? And slaves, commoners, laborers, farm workers?

Good old days for women? A gender that often could not vote or hold equal footing in public, social, or private life – save those with some alleged royal blood or position of nobility?

Yeah, there’s always been conflict, always been the haves and the have nots, periods of stability and instability. Any concept of the good old days, though, must address the issue of for whom were those idyllic and blessed days set aside.

One might well find out that the best days to be had are the ones we face today.