Why Keep Looking Back?

I was doing some between-grocery-store trips shopping on Sunday (you know, when there's a couple of things you want right now rather than wait until it's time to do your 'real' grocery shopping with the big cart and all) and was hailed by someone in the produce section (we were looking at fruits. Me, seedless grapes; him, peaches) who 'knew' me from that thumbnail picture in The Bulletin that pops up on random Wednesdays. 

I admit I was a little disappointed he hadn't recognized me from the 'Have You Seen this Dweeb?' photo on the side of the milk carton (and they say it 'pays to advertise') but was intrigued by his question which was: 'why are you so optimistic about Norwich?' He added that he'd lived here all of his life (so far) and hadn't ever encountered an "Energizer Bunny" (his words) when it came to Norwich. 

It took me a minute to slide the bass drum off my shoulders and put the sticks down and when I did I offered an elevator speech kind of answer (that's a vertical drive-by when you only have a floor or two to make your most salient point; in my case, I usually wear a ball cap to cover mine) that touched on the almost three decades my family and I have lived here, the positive changes we believe we have seen and concluded by channeling Randy Bachman's You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet in terms of optimism about tomorrow and all the ones to follow.

Less than impressed or inspired he countered with my least favorite response that, for me, signals someone looking for an argument rather than hoping to have a discussion, the old "whatabout?" 

I've heard it used for everything from Hillary Clinton's emails to, in his case, the Reid and Hughes building, which I think I read was abandoned in 1987 and acquired by the City of Norwich in 1993. Not that he's unhappy about the projected rehabilitation unfolding there now, mind you, but 'what about the delay and all the mistakes for all those years (again, his words) by city leaders?'

Yeah. He had me there. Right at the corner of 'back in the day' and 'looking through sepia-tinted eyewear.' Rather than elevate his and/or my blood pressure, I offered a smile and nod as I retreated towards the deli counter because I knew we weren't going to change one another's minds about how each of us feels about the town in which we live. 

Except. 
You can hold on to something from the past so tightly that you're not able to reach out and grab ahold of what's next. Norwich of 2019 is in more ways than I can ever imagine (or hope to understand) both similar to and yet different from the Rose City of 1993, or 1893 for that matter. And nothing we can do at this moment can, or will, ever change anything done or left undone from then. 

Have mistakes been made? Are we human? It's the same answer to both questions so let's adapt, learn from the past and move forward together into the future. And maybe come back later in the week for those seedless grapes when they're on sale.
-bill kenny