on nostalgia

Andy spent much of last night listening to David Bazan podcasts. He reported Bazan as saying that nostalgia is, essentially, a handicap. It soaks up the enjoyment from our lives and twists the facts of the past, making bygone history into but a caricature of those actual days. The proverb goes, "Don't dwell on the past, for those days were really no better than these." The rose-colored lenses of nostalgia always remembers the good over the bad, painting a skewed portrait, making it easy to cling to the past in return for an obliviousness to the present. Nostalgia's like thrusting your oar into the riverbed to keep the kayak from going forward while the current flows on its merry way. The scenery in that spot may be beautiful, but there's more to be seen downriver. Too often I find myself focusing on the past, yearning for the past, as if it were any better than the present. It wasn't. Succumbing to the seduction of nostalgia isn't just putting on rose-colored lenses but also throwing on blinders: we run the risk of missing out on opportunities and adventures presenting themselves in the Here & Now. Now let's see if I can take this to heart and make it real.