The lost art of nostalgia

Remember that time you laughed and laughed until you weren't actually laughing at anything anymore, but in fact laughing at yourself for laughing so hard in the first place! Remember that time...? And how about that holiday you took where you'd never felt happier? Remember that? Of course you do - how could you forget?? Those are the good things! And you know that feeling you get when you recall and recount those memories? It feels good, right? You know what that is? That's nostalgia.

It's a strange word isn't it? 'Nostalgia'. If you go by modern dictionaries, you'll be told it means a "bittersweet longing for things, persons, or situations of the past".

But what is it really, and why am i bothering you with it right now? 

Well, I was sharing a glass of vino recently with a friend (at Gordon's Wine bar) and we got to talking about nostalgia and what she described as her "love of nostalgia" and I was struck by the idea; to be in love with a feeling...and I got to wondering about how many of us do this enough...? How many of us revel in the reminiscible...? By my fathoming, nostalgia is the art of celebrating that which has passed but that should not be forgotten...i mean think about it - what are we without our past? Without history and herstory we are simply 'him' and 'her'...not 'us'. Our history is what knits us together - that time we stood in the kitchen at 1am dancing like maniacs to the Beatles even though everyone else was sat down; that time we chased through Columbus Circle after speaking to strangers in Starbucks until the moon rose high; that time we stayed out clubbing in Munich until 7am before rolling back through busying work-a-day streets atop a backdrop of the early morning sun...those are the stories that bind us to people...that give us the spur to pick up the phone and call whichever crazy cat was there with us...these are what best–man stories are made of...hell, these are what friendships are based on! 

So my friends - don't dwell in the past at the expense of living in the present, but don't forget to pay it just mind either - so walk round to your friends house, pick up the phone now, open Facebook and send a message, and catch up with someone you haven't spoken to in a while...because after all, we haven't gone trough it all just to let it slip by...

Just a thought...