out with the old

We live in a disposable world. We don't fix things, we get new ones. I recall getting my first car's brakes adjusted rather than replaced by an old family friend who was a mechanic. In this context, it is easy to see the descriptor "old" as a synonym for "redundant" or "obsolete".  I find myself so often going along with this world view when I collude with arguments about politics - "we must move on", fashion "that's soooo 1970's" or culture "well you would think that way given your age" and so on. In August this year I shared a  photograph of this old tractor, sitting in a local garden centre, on display surrounded by flowers and other garden paraphenalia. On a recent visit I spotted it again, snapped it again and it hit me that I remember them being used. I recall how much the first "Fergie" made life so much easier for farmers. Lest we forget, in the new we so often see the old revealed. We can trace the origins of the new technology in those old computors which covered floors. So, don't rush out and embrace the new, while rejecting the old. Allow yourself the privilege of embracing both for what they are, our past and lived present, both of which combine to offer a new, better future.