Now & then lifestyle

In this day and age, people in the western world live in the most luxurious and affluent times ever. Of course, some people have more than others, but even the poorest today have access to things and products unknown to the rich and famous of yesterday. Think about it- before the rise of global trade, people were forced to live on whatever local farmers could provide. This meant a quiet unadventurous life and diet…Now & then lifestyle, or then & now whatever you prefer.

Things are just different NOW

Let us take a quick look at some things we today take for granted but are actually extraordinary in historic terms.

Schoolchildren as young as eight carry their smartphones. With this device, they have the world at their disposal. Alexander the Great and Caesar had to rely on messengers on horseback. Sometimes information reached them when the battle was fought. Caesar would have killed for an iPhone- not that he didn’t kill anyone without a phone, but that’s a completely different matter…

Crassus was the richest Roman ever, the Jeff Bezos of his time. Yet, he never traveled faster than his horse could run, just like the next man, and never went to space. And even if you don’t want to become an astronaut, most people have traveled by airplane, unimaginable to even the most scientists until the Wright brothers appeared on the stage.

It does mean that things were bad THEN

If you wanted to know what happened in the world, you only have to turn on tour television and watch the news or buy a newspaper. But back in 1300, you had to wait for traveling merchants, who could tell you the latest news… that happened three months ago- if you were lucky, that is…

Bored? Watch tv, play a game, listen to some music, go to the theatre…lots of options. Not so much if you lived in the 11th century, though- back then, the only hope to get some excitement, was a minor war…

And then there is all the food you can buy in stores, only a few yards from your home. Your great-grandparents probably would not recognize half of it.

Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, and one of the most famous names in history, never drank something as common as coffee. Now you can walk in every café or Starbucks and order a mug ( with or without cinnamon to mask the lacking taste of coffee ?…).

Chocolate? Unknown to Charlemagne. You can stuff your face with it while binge-watching The Crown. Pineapples? (One simple and great recipe with pineapple can be found here: Roasted pineapple with Penja pepper & honey).  Henry the woman butcher- sorry, Henry VIII never even knew they existed. Therefore he never ate Hawaii pizza. Maybe if he did, he would have choked on a slice before he had the opportunity to kill another wife…

If you told a medieval man there was such a thing as a banana, he would answer: “bananas?! What are you talking about?!?! Are you nuts?!”

All I want to say is that life in the western world, however imperfect it may seem sometimes, is better than in any given era ever before.

Read more about the differences between the past and the present or now and then lifestyle here.