Hello!

The difference between the past and the present... and,  by implication, the future,... is that we have taken upon ourselves the burden to be DIFFERENT.

Just as the first Christians, just as the first Muslims, just as the first Buddhists, the first Hindus...  the first just as those who followed Moishe from Egypt, we have accepted the burden of our difference, and have decided to bear it with a smile.

We are different, if we choose to be so.
If we choose to follow the old ways, we shall be old.