On Nostalgia

On Nostalgia 8 May, 2026 I’m rarely prone to bouts of nostalgia. When I fall into a bout of reminiscing about the past, that’s usually short and, to be entirely honest, meaningless. To me, the past is a far-off country that I once visited. A country that keeps receding into the distance as each day passes. There are good and bad aspects of that country of the past. There’s joy mixed with a dose of blasé. Frustration counterbalanced by triumph. My own past is neither better nor worse than my present. I don’t have an idealized vision of what came before. I don’t really feel the desire to repeat my past in the now. But it’s far too easy to view the past as a fantastical utopia. As a time of wonder and of greatness. As a better time and space. The past had its own problems, many of which mirror the problems of today. We can’t gloss over those problems or excuse them away. That’s not to say that the present is all wonders and joy, either. The negative of the present tempers the positive.…