Nostalgia: the human emotion that creeps up on you over time. One day you’re laughing with your friends and the next you are overcome by that exact feeling; only months, or years later. You yearn to go back to that time and do it all over again. It’s something that we, as humans, would all experience at some point in our lives. Nostalgia comes to us, not as a hazy, abstract dream but as a solid, sharp memory much like when a camera suddenly comes into focus.
But as George Wildman Ball memorably told Newsweek in 1971, “Nostalgia is a seductive liar.” The word nostalgia carries a positive connotation because when we look back at our memories, we tend to exaggerate the good side. As the saying goes, nostalgia is looking at the past through a rose-tinted window. It’s a yearning for when times were better, or a time we imagined that was better. As a reader and a dreamer, I spend a great portion of my time with my head in the clouds. So much that sometimes I’d prefer to stay there and the line between reality and dreamland blurs.
But to live my life properly, I must move on, create new memories and look back on them in the future. No matter how happy we are, it will never compare to the life inside your head that’s looking at a land where the sun never sets. It’s a future that seems so uncertain…. But there are certainties in life and it’s that precious confidence that forces us forward. I will continue my way and you on yours, but sometimes we’ll let ourselves wander off the well-trodden path and pretend that we’re on a different journey.
Nostalgia is an indescribably strong emotion, one that lifts our heart, one that accompanies the smiles in the remembrance of old, dusty memories. Nostalgia is definitely one that carries a positive connotation. All of that I do agree with you, but that is where our thinking parts. You believe ,as quoted, that "Nostalgia is a seductive lair." I beg to differ. The emotion nostalgia is there for a crucial reason, and that is to remember our past, our origins. To not forget the "little wonders" that were bestowed unto us. It may be true that it is bathed in an unnecessarily golden light, but how else better to realize that you have such a good life? How else better than to honor our lived lifes? It is not a coincidence that in sadness or depression, we experience more of it. It is the little tidbits of life that proves "Life is worth living."
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, nostalgia is a beautiful emotion. The feeling brings me warmth and happiness. But as the proverb goes, "A beautiful thing is never perfect". Of course the idea of a perfect world is tempting but it is also too good to be true. Nostalgia sugarcoats the harsh realities of life. Beauty is not perfection; life is not without suffering; and a piece of writing can never be flawless. We often retreat into nostalgia when life gets too hard to keep going. But soon enough we have to wake up from that dream and face reality.
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