The headlines read “These are the worst of times”
I do believe it’s true
I feel so helpless like a boat against the tide
I wish the summer winds could bring back paradise
But I know, if the world turned upside down
Baby, I know you’d always be around
The best of times are when I’m alone with you
Styx: The Best of Times – 1981
Back in 1984, I landed at my first duty station in the Navy. The base (now long gone) was known as NAVCOMMSTA Harold E. Holt. It was about a 13-hour drive North from Perth, Western Australia and a 26-hour flight from Los Angeles. Our mission was to track Soviet activity in the Indian Ocean. It was considered isolated duty. If you were single, it was a 15-month tour. Families did three years. There were few of the comforts of home, including just one TV channel (The ABC which was like PBS). There were shortages of all our favorite foods. Once every other month, a supply ship would replenish items. Every now and then we would get shipments of the latest CDs and cassettes. The video rental shop was always picked over, but there would be a waiting list for movies like Platoon and Rocky IV. Most everyone complained incessantly. After a while, people would adapt. We had friends in the states record TV shows like Dallas, Dynasty, and Knots Landing on VHS and send to us. Three episodes per tape. Then we would share with our friends. After about a year, I got used to the place and ended up extending for nearly five years. I joined an Australian rugby team and a dart league. My best friends were Aussies. Even though it seemed like the worst of times, they were some of the best of times.
Ironically, most everyone stationed there experienced the same thing. There are a couple Facebook pages for people who served there. It’s funny to see people I was stationed with pine for those years. The same people who I remember bitching and whining all the time about wanting to go “home” now refer to that place as “home.”
I’m old enough to have seen some tough times. Gas shortages in the 1970s. Horrible unemployment and inflation in the early 1980s (which prompted me to join the Navy in the first place). The tech bubble bursting. The Great Recession. COVID. Each of those brought us to the point of wishing for better, prior times. Yet when I look back, there was good in some of those times. Now that COVID seems to be in the rearview mirror, I have a strange sense of nostalgia for those early days when business travel ended and I was able to (reluctantly) slow down. It was hard at first, but soon I got used to it. Now, strangely, I sort of miss the predictability of going to the office without any air or car travel. While I love live events, I do miss sleeping in my own bed every night.
So, the moral of the story is: today might just be the best of times. Maybe make the most of it. Someday, you might miss the things you’re experiencing today.