I'm growing old, I delight in the past.
The fact that a crime might have been committed with impunity in the past may make it seem more familiar and less gruesome, but surely does not give it any greater legitimacy.
But my point is these Civil War songs were gruesome. The hatred that's so bad in this country today, and for the past 10 or 15 years, bad as it is, is nothing compared to the kind of things people would write down and sing back in the Civil War.
The past guarantees you nothing in the future if the rules change.
In the past, a great library was the result of librarians functioning as guardians of culture, tending and caring, selecting and recommending works that maintained and nurtured a cultural heritage.
The coolest thing I've gotten to do in the past few years is guest star on Sesame Street.
In the past, I tried to be more of a typical session guitarist. I wasn't so concerned with impressing anybody.
I don't want to return to the past. I don't yearn for when I was 18 years old. I was in high school then. I had acne. I had a terrible hairdo. I'm sure I was sporting polyester pants.
I was really stuck in the whole Farah Fawcett hairdo long after it was past being in fashion.
In the past, I worked for HAL, and when working there, I had limitations and had restrictions on what I could create. They wanted me to make the next 'Smash Bros.' and the next 'Kirby,' and that wasn't the place for me.
In the past ABC has made half-hearted efforts or, worse, cosmetic efforts, to do something about news and I wasn't certain about what their real aim was - nor am I now.
I've always been a happy-go-lucky person. I haven't got any dark tales, I didn't draw on my own past, I'm from a very normal stable background and had an amazing childhood, and I haven't got any complaints really.
As a Scot, representing a Scottish constituency for almost the past 25 years, I do not harbour an overweening ambition to pronounce on each and every matter exclusively English.
We are always taking a hard look at how life was in the past in coming up with interesting subject matter for our various series, and remembering how much I used to want an encyclopedia as a kid made me realize wanting a set is very unlikely for teens today, and that conversation would be interesting.
I like to use the hard times in the past to motivate me today.
Our last jam session was this past Christmas. Dad played his harmonica, mom sang in English and Italian, and I played guitar. I'm so happy that we could share that musical experience for one last time.
I don't harp on what I could change about the past, because I can't go back and change it. But definitely a lot of things I would change.
Many older people I know are focused on the past. When they talk about the future, they are, quite understandably, preoccupied with the hassles and obstacles of their increasing age.
Except among those whose education has been in the minimalist style, it is understood that hasty moral judgments about the past are a form of injustice.
O, my past years in Rangoon are spectres to haunt my soul; and they seem to laugh at me as they shake the chains they have riveted on me.
