First, you had me when you started with a Cat Valente quote. She's amazing.

As to the post itself, while it is very well written, we must have had very different childhoods. I can honestly say, in my mid forties, that every decade has been better than the previous. With the first two decades being outright terrible, despite being born to loving parents who are wonderful people.

John Hodgman says nostalgia is a toxic impulse, and I tend to agree. People paint the past in gaudy colors, forgetting the bad. Which can be nice. But can also lead to people longing for a past that never was, and trying to go back to it - and sometimes trying to bring society back to it.

Also? A rainbow is totally still a magic trick in the sky.