Modern and Old

Click hIt was cold this morning.  If I was in the middle of Antarctica, I would probably say it was warm.  But I’m not.  It was cold. 
It made me wonder about the worms and hope they had their little jackets on.  Then I though, how stupid is that?  Of course they won’t.  They haven’t got arms to use to put them on.  I did think then that some entrepreneurial worm could make a lot of money inventing worm jackets.  If they went into dacks then they could save heaps as they would only need to make one leg.   It’s only the two-legged creatures that need two legs made.  Having no legs is like having only one leg.  I then came to my senses and spent my time wandering about gesticulating before I was herded someplace for a sleep.
As I have mentioned before I have been reading a book of speeches.  Recently I have read ones by Starlin, Nixon, Meir, and Trudeau to name a few.  The latest I am reading is a speech by Indira Gandhi.  She makes a statement I have said before (not as well or succinctly) so it does ring true with me.  She said “All that is modern is not good just as all that is old is neither all good nor all bad.”  I like that (just as well really as I agree with it)
It seems to me I think the latest research is the bees knees.  I may have made decisions based on what was then the latest research.  Research now may say the exact opposite.  I can  abandon all I have stood on and pursue the “latest research.” “All that is modern is not good.”  I think of modern phones.  They are great in what they can do but as someone recently posted “Phones can keep you close to those who are far away, and far away to those who are close.”
It seems to me, we have come full circle in so many ways.  I decided grandma did not know what she was talking about, and saw ancient remedies as quaint but impractical.   Now it seems I am revisiting grandma’s recipes and seeing the medicinal value in ancient remedies.
I think Gandhi is right to say that all that is old is neither all good or all bad.  There are old things I would not touch with a ten-foot pole.  For me, they were wrong then, and they are wrong now.  Today they may wear a different cloak, but they are the same.
From what I have seen, if willing to listen to it, I have an inbuilt reality meter.  A word that describes it for me is discern.  In looking up its meaning I found “distinguish (someone or something) with difficulty by sight or with the other senses.”
Mostly I can distinguish something as valid or fraudulent.  In some things it is a matter of finding out the hard way.  But the things that are important, and really make a difference to my quality of life and that of others, seem to be instinctual.  I know that I know that I know.  For me it does not mean that I always do the right thing, but at least I know the right thing to do.ere to edit.