Glasses are ubiquituous in Nature. In spite of their very different microscopic constituents, thay all share some intriguing macroscopic dynamical features such as very slow relaxations and aging effects. The description of these phenomena has been a challenge to theoreticians for almost a century now. I shall summarize the hallmarks of the glassy problem and briefly discuss a theoretical approach that leads to a scenario for glassy dynamics that has a bearing in several other systems with slow out of equilibrium dynamics.