At the opposite end of the spectrum in living in the past. It isn’t the same as nostalgia by any stretch of the imagination.
I have been on the lookout for a good music system which still comes with a CD player. There are two primary reasons:
a) I have a sizeable CD collection that I don’t want to discard
b)I want to reduce playing music from my phone as it leads to many interruptions whenever I get a message or a call
Of the two, the second reason, I would think, is more logical. It isn’t at all hard to find all the music on those CDs online. In fact, discarding them would free up space.
Somewhere in that collection is also some amount of nostalgia — of a collection painstakingly amassed over the years, bringing back some fond memories.
All of us indulge in nostalgia from time to time. If we didn’t, there would be no such thing called reunions where you meet with friends and reminiscence over times gone by. Without nostalgia, there would be no flashback photos that transport us back in time, no old memories to put a smile on our faces.
Nostalgia is in itself mostly positive. You won’t be nostalgic about a crappy work experience 20 years after you’ve escaped it. You get nostalgic about simpler times, happy memories, moments that made you smile. Every once in awhile, it’s okay to indulge in nostalgia. It gives us some perspective about our journeys and how things have changed.
At the opposite end of the spectrum in living in the past. It isn’t the same as nostalgia by any stretch of the imagination.
We have all seen people who are living in the past. They’ll tell you about everything that they have accomplished and how no one realizes their value now. They will go on and on droning about how things were so much better back in the day, and how everything has gone to the dogs now. Of course, there might be some kernel of truth in what they’re saying as not all changes are for the better and there are a few things where progress hasn’t really made much sense. Probably why the Nokia 3310 made a comeback a couple of years ago as people were tired of their smartphones and the pressure to always stay connected.
Unlike nostalgia, living in the past isn’t fun at all. Instead of bringing back happy memories, it makes one more bitter at the fact that it’s impossible to go back to a time when everything seemed infinitely so much better. Living in the past is the death-knell for businesses and careers is in many ways the same as being stuck in the past.
If you get really lucky, you can live off past glory. JD Salinger wrote just one seminal work, The Catcher in the Rye, in his lifetime, and then lived out the rest of his years like a recluse. Much like a former sportsperson who can coast off one spectacular career-defining victory, living off the past too isn’t an option for most of us.
Every once in a while, slipping into nostalgia is fine.
But living in the past is worth giving a miss.
P.S — the picture is from one of my DIY projects where I am repurposing old cassettes to make pen stands. I am calling the project ‘recycling the past’.
