It is so easy to just while away time with yourself knee deep in nostalgia. There is something about that pain which brings with it the sweetness of a purer, more innocent time. There's nothing better, however, when the trip down one memory lane rescues you from the trip down another one.
I believe that we humans enjoy pain. I don't mean the physical kind but the emotional kind. We convince ourselves that we are more human when we are more vulnerable and therefore the pain only underscores the innate humanness in us. It is something that we feel proud of. It somehow validates our existence. We lug it around in the hope that someone else will recognise and appreciate this ability of ours, that someone will empathise and we can start a journey of being in pain together. It is weird how much we assume we are entitled to some things just because we have felt pain. Either the other one owes us attention or they owe us a no-questions-asked parasitic association. All because we have been hurt.
I suppose that is why we find nostalgia to be such a brilliantly endearing emotion. It takes us to a time when things were better. The trip in itself is thoroughly enjoyable since it represents better times by definition. But it always ends in despair. Because you've already planted, in your head, the seed of dissatisfaction for the times now.
A meeting with a friend made me realise that being a nostalgia junkie is just as bad as being a crackhead. Your perpetual search for a fix makes you forget the immense power you wield - the one that lets you make sure that tomorrow's trip down the memory lane, if you choose to indulge, will have some neat surprises! |
Aah! trips down the memory lanes are my fav pastime :)
Surprisingly, these trips dont make me any more dissatisfied with my present, neither do they skip the painful memories. Its just a habitual wandering in the past and re-affirming who I am that I enjoy!