Born In The Wrong Decade?

This post was supposed to announce that I'm off on my holidays to Spain with my Baby, but we've had some very sad news that his father is now terminally ill, and we have decided to stay, for what could be his last few weeks.  The diagnosis of cancer came 7 years ago, and it's thanks to the wonders of modern medicine that all of those additional years have been possible.  In the past, certain types of cancer would have meant a very swift death, and I have been thinking about how many blessings living in 2013 gives to us.

When I dress 'vintage' the most frequent comment I get is "You were born in the wrong era".  Which I don't agree with.  If I had been born in a vintage yesteryear, I would never have had all the amazing privileges which I have had.  When my mother left school in the early 1960s, she was asked if she wanted to be a secretary or a teacher.  Those were the only two choices for a woman without a university degree (in those days you couldn't go unless you had a language and my mother failed Latin!).  I have had the freedom to choose what I want from life.

So, I feel like I'm exactly where I'm meant to be in time.  I have the wonderful luxury of choosing to wear clothes from past decades but I also have the vote, financial independence, an education, contact lenses, and access to contraception.  I bet a woman from the 1940s would happily swap her entire wardrobe for that!

Let's not be too quick to yearn for bygone eras through rose-tinted vintage glasses.  Those eras came with many hardships, and whilst we might not always like everything about these modern times we live in, we can all appreciate just how lucky we are.

For my Baby and I, modern medicine has given precious additional years to someone dear to us, and while it is incredibly sad that time is now running out, we have so many blessings to count.