Retrograde & Steady.

Our youngest recently announced her engagement and in a general e-mail to our family and friends, I wrote in part, “Yes after going steady for nearly five years, …” To which I received the following reply from our daughter. “Steady, who uses the term steady these days! Oh and for your info we had actually been together 5 years and 7 days when he proposed. “ Forgetting the part about the length of time they have been going together, (not that she was obviously counting), I had to think about my use of the word “Steady”” especially in light of the fact that the Word of the Day for that very day: (Tuesday, October 12, 2010) was “retrograde.
Now retrograde has 3 common meanings:
1. Having a backward motion or direction; retiring or retreating.
2. Inverse or reversed, as order.
3. Exhibiting degeneration or deterioration.
Now there are some who might say, I fit that latter category of exhibiting degeneration or deterioration! (Lol) But the older I get, the more I do find myself fitting into the first definition and certainly in regard to retiring or retreating into the memories and patterns of my youth. (And quite happy if not outright proud about it, too!)
Now I have no idea what term these young people use now days, for going steady, but I’m guessing “Courtship” would be even more retrograde for them too? So in my defence (and yours too, if you fit in the same pattern), is that there is nothing wrong in looking back to the past, if you are looking for the right things. Not looking back as an escape from the future, but looking back, so as to not leave all the good stuff in the past, but to take the very best with us into the future always.
Yes it is true that sometimes, when we look back, we see a lot of “stuff” that we have left behind and say, “Thank goodness for that and, “What was I /we thinking at that time!” But also, and very sadly, we often also look back at a lot that has been left behind, and are left wondering, “Why did I/we let that happen”, and ““What was I /we thinking at that time!” So just because a thing, idea, or even a word is old, it doesn’t mean it has lost its meaning or purpose in our lives, even if we have, (purposely or otherwise,) left it far behind.
So today’s query is, “Are you retrograde too? And if so, for what reason? To escape from the future? Or to make the future more liveable and even more lovable? Well they’re my thoughts on the matter. What are yours?