Last week, I traveled from my home in Los Angeles back to Worcester, MA, where I was born and raised.
And while nostalgia can be a guilty pleasure, on this particular trip it gave me many “aha moments” on how to get more enjoyment and results from my business.
For me, nostalgia usually starts with travel itself.
The ride to the airport, the journey to the gate, onto the plane and into my seat - all of it is pretty much the same as when I first flew between the coasts 30 years ago.
Yet technology has made it, in ways both sad and wonderful, quite different.
First, the travel disconnect is gone, as no matter how far we go, we are never really “offline” any more.
So is the “challenge” of travel, the need for resourcefulness as we navigate from place-to-place, also mostly gone - with just a few swipes there magically appear all kinds of assistants to effortlessly chauffeur and direct us on our journeys - Uber, Lyft, Waze, et al.
And we wonder if, on balance, is it really better now than it used to be?
Then we arrive and “return” to the places and relationships of our youth.
Riding down familiar roads and seeing familiar faces - a bit more aged and grayed, for sure, but still the same - and we reminisce of times gone by and of the contrasts with the present time.
Like helping my 80-year-old mother, once so strong and vibrant, take just a few steps down the corridor from her hospital bed.
Then, a few moments later, showing her how to stream her favorite shows from her iPhone to the big screen TV mounted in her hospital room.
Like jumping from a conversation with my 85-year-old father about how, when he was his grandson’s age of 12, he sold the afternoon newspaper announcing the end of World War II...
...to navigating on his phone to the Uber application so that on those cold and snowy New England mornings he can hop a ride to work (yes he is still working and loves it!), and not fight the elements alone.
Like driving past my hometown baseball diamond - unchanged from that glorious day so many years ago when I hit my first and only Little League home run...
... to noticing how the old town soda bar, bowling alley, movie theater, and candy store were long ago replaced with the franchises and chains that are so great in their way but also leave us wanting something more...authentic.
This whole “chicken soup” of experiences evoke in me a soft sadness for sure, but also motivating feelings of gratitude and encouragement.
Gratitude for the humanity of it all, that shows and comes through not in spite of technology, but so often because of it.
Like seeing the excitement rise in my mother’s eyes as she “facetimes” with her precious two-year old granddaughter many thousands of miles away.
Because in moments like these, I am reminded that as long as there is breath in us, there are more of our stories to be told.
Stories of personal connections for sure, but equally ones of professional opportunity and accomplishments.
Because while the old world will never be forgotten, it is gone.
And the new world and present day is a cool place.
Because of the technology that sometimes feels a little “off” and frightening, but to a far greater degree enriches our world in ways too innumerable to count.
The choice, just as it is for my 85-year-old father who remembers FDR and Joe Dimaggio and a time before television, is ours.
Whether to - as a matter of pride and tradition - battle through a New England snowstorm on our own...
...or to reach out for a little help from some new friends.
That is the kind of nostalgia I like best.