Sometimes nostalgia is exactly what it used to be. Perhaps it even improves with time. Merely being able to remember the emotions, the actions, the experience of time that has passed perhaps a decade ago. The sense of young curiosity and happiness really stirs up something from the deep.
Nostalgia works for this generation and the previous ones, but I cannot fathom the next generation to be able to get this utter and complete sensation caused by things in their childhood. You might think this doubt is folly, but I implore you to rethink it.
While I admit, many a childhood may differ considerably from mine. Alas, I can only use my own experience as a standpoint. Also, I will take a narrow line of experiences to explain myself.
Try to remember, what were the most influential bits of your time as a kid. Say, about 7 or 8. Now exclude the late nights with your friends, just hanging out, roller-skating, whatever. And family trips. These are repeating events, basically processes that take place almost completely independently from your place of origin, culture, family wealth, status, etc. What’s left?
A small amount of events and things. The things are special from your point of view. May it be a teddy, a sheep, a picture, a piece of fancy, a toy or a game. Perhaps a movie, a play. Perhaps a piece of the most beautiful music you had ever heard. Then think how many things you had seen or experienced by that time. Not as many as the kids nowadays. The pool from which the greatest experiences could come has grown wider. By a lot.
There is so much stuff in the world that pretty much everyone can get. Most of it is mostly remakes, just older stuff made shinier. There are hardly any new concepts, hardly any new attempts to make something revolutionary. With an overflow of information it is hard to make emotional connections with a small part of it. Hence, one will have a weaker sense of nostalgia, when being reminded of the small part. I cannot say for certain that this is how it is, as I was born when I was and as I was and am. As a corollary, I cannot see into the minds of the youngsters I see and I definitely cannot see how they will react emotionally in the future to the things of the past. It is just a hunch.
But what I know for certain is that I cannot imagine myself not getting emotional when I hear the words “Paris in the fall. The last months of the year, and the end of the millenium. The city holds many memories for me. Of cafés, of music, of love. And of death.” [cue epic music].
I know I am usually relatively adept at keeping my emotions in check, but some emotions are too strong to be controlled. “That damn goat!”
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But for now, I shall leave you with friendzoning. It happens to all of us at some point of our lives. And it is always annoying. But it always keeps hope alive.
Have you ever thought what will happen when time travel would be possible and you can be an old man one day and tell your great-grandchildren, "Why, back in your day . . ."? It would be epic and nostalgic
ReplyDelete"Why, back in my day people people took videos from the public domain and could post them on their blogs. It was a nice experience, while it lasted anyways. But after a while in the interest of continuing the traditional system of states and governments, not to mention to stop the deterioration of general culture due to lolcats this kind of behavior was prohibited."
DeleteWell, I guess so. It would be generally epic to live so long to have grandchildren and then abuse them (by forcing them to listen to me hem and haw about life decades ago) to indulge my need for nostalgia. Alas, the problem with information overflooding remains. Perhaps people will learn to process this vast amount of information that has been enabled to reach a person every single moment of one's life. This, in theory, might help the problem of object-oriented nostalgia. Alas, this would be effectively called evolution and it doesn't really happen whenever we want it to. It is a process, hence we cannot be sure that our descendants will already be a big step ahead of us in terms of evolution.
Also, kudos on your alias. Can't really think of a better-suiting one for this topic.
Well thank you, though my alias comes from a rose name. Lately I have started to think that even though people know how things work they just cannot put it into practice. We have lost the skill of doing things, and when I look at younger generations it is only getting worse. So in the end they don´t have nothing to pass to their kids cause what can the kid really do when he has a lot of facts but not the knowledge how to put it into practice ? And and quite frankly we are starting to lose the skill of analyzing things too so only facts stay. Once in a blue moon people should go out and experience the world and learn from older people cause it really is an important part of developing. What i mean is that change is good, but it is better not to forget the past, cause maybe some day their knowings might be the one future needs. And what you really need is to know is where to get information when you need it, everything else is comes with reading as far as it comes to facts.
DeleteAh, the ever-constant problem with knowledge and wisdom. One can have all the knowledge in the world, but without the skill to do something, to MacGyver something, it is all of no use. One might just as well have majored in English literature.
DeleteThis is pretty much the reason I have never understood the popularity of Trivial Pursuit in America. While I admit, knowing things is important, but there is heaps of information without practical value in them. It would be wiser to pick up something like debating, where one has to research the subject and then be able to speak about it from more than one perspective. Furthermore, while researching, one has to evaluate the value of the facts found and make logical deductions. This teaches to memorize, evaluate, deduce, compile and present. And, like Trivial Pursuit, it is a group activity.
But after all, it's not like we can teach the world. Everyone learns from their own personal experiences. Hence it is important to allow those experiences to happen. We are what we were, in that we are a result of what we have been, what we have seen, heard, and done. And yes, I am a big fan of the Oxford comma.
And aye, a beautiful rose it is.