Cualquiera tiempo pasado fue mejor

Yes, the title of this blog is in Spanish, my native language and is taken from "Coplas por la muerte de su padre" by Spanish Poet Jorge Manrique (1440-1479). And, what is wrong with that sentence? For starters it is not the full sentence but to make things worse I believe that many people live by it, specially when becoming adults. They think that infancy or adolescence or youth in general was better. And if life just happens to take them to a different part of the world, the places they were before were better. Things do not stop here. There is yet another popular Spanish sentence "recordar es vivir", or my own translation: "to remember is to live".

But now, let me be the defense attorney of the Poet. His full sentence was: "como a nuestro parecer cualquiera tiempo pasado fue mejor", which is better interpreted by the English Translation "How fain is memory to measure each latter day inferior to those of old". By the way, the English sentence can't be chopped the way the Spanish version can. The corresponding part of the English translation wouldn't make sense.

There is no denying that the Spanish poet was indeed saddened by his father death. I was too when my father passed away. I have also been saddened when diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. But even in such situations, the poet and I found that life is worth living, because every moment is precious. There are so many people and reasons to keep going and enjoying, that these difficult moments are just that, moments; but life goes on and so does the life of the loved ones. Why wasting our time and our mental energy in remembrance of times that will never come back. As the idea I wrote in a previous blog, we must make our present so pleasant that we will remember it with joy, but not try to stick to a past that we only remember fragmentarily or ... conveniently.