The golden age is not in the past, but in the future; not in the origin of human experience, but in its consummate flower; not opening in Eden, but out from Gethsemane.

Nostalgia points in the wrong direction. The instinct to believe the good time was earlier is mostly a trick of memory, which keeps the warmth of the past and discards its fear, illness and drudgery. If a better arrangement is available it is ahead, and it comes out of what is difficult now rather than out of a return to anything. That places the work in the present, where it can actually be done.

Notice when you are comparing today unfavourably with a period you have edited. Then ask what you would need to build to make the coming years worth remembering. The answer is usually unglamorous and available.