BUCKING THE SYSTEM: TRICK FOR ENHANCING PAST NEEDED IN THE PRESENT

It's odd how easily we can beautify the past and yet have such a hard time focusing on the positive in our daily lives.

It's odd how a little perspective can make once-hated activities seem like good times and fun things to do. Living under financial strain and performing childhood chores was not the best way to spend your time back in the day, but as we get older, those become the "good old days."

It kind of makes you wonder exactly how the brain processes memories, and whether they ferment or something with age.

You know you are growing up and older when you started saying things like "When I was in school..." and "Do you remember doing...?" Of course everything was perfect (or at least better) when my generation did something, and kids these days just don't know how easy they've got it.

It's amazing how much I'm starting to sound like my parents.

Patrick and I were both country babies, although Nutbush, Tenn., was a lot countrier than Charleston, Mo. He remembers milking cows and slopping hogs, two chores I can honestly say I was never forced to do. According to him, those chores were doable only because it meant he'd get to ride the horses or go swimming in the creek afterwards.

I'm going to take his word for it.

I, on the other hand, didn't live on a farm or have to deal with any animals other than the family dog, but I did have a couple of annual country chores that were doable mainly because of the end result.

For example, summertime meant the dreaded canning and freezing seasons, which I participated in faithfully every year of my childhood. Every summer we peeled, washed, sliced, and cooked peaches, tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans and assorted fruit that was then canned in Mason jars boiled for who knows how long to get the seals just right.

Then it was time to substitute freezer bags for the Mason jars and repeat the process with corn (on and off the cob), strawberries, blackeyed peas, okra, squash and anything else my dad could get to grow in the garden.

I hated all of the peach fuzz that stuck to my legs, the pea peelings mushed beneath my fingernails, and the corn silk that stuck to everything, but God knows there is not a better taste in the world than fried corn for dinner and canned peaches for dessert on a cold winter's night.

You see what I mean? All of that negative energy it took to make it through canning and freezing season, and what do I remember? Winter dinner menus.

For many years, leaders of the former Soviet Union rewrote their country's history and eliminated past leaders they wanted to forget. During that time, whoever was written out was not honored, remembered in history lessons, or even discussed. It was like they didn't exist.

I think our brains have that same kind of filtering system, only instead of eliminating memories, we choose to recall the good instead of the bad. I have fond memories of summer because I remember how I used to con Clarissa into shelling more peas than I did, and I remember how good the canned and frozen food tasted in the winter.

It's weird how easily we can beautify the past and yet have such a hard time focusing on the positive in our daily lives. Maybe if we could teach ourselves to beautify the present and future as well, we wouldn't frown so much during the day. Getting rid of the frowns might actually lead to smiles and laughter, and before you know it we'd be having good times that didn't need the beautification filter later on.

It's a good thought, isn't it? It'd make an even better memory.

~Tamara Zellars Buck is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.