It's an odd phrase 'Living in the Past'. Someone I know thinks that I do - live in the past.
But don't we all? After all, the past was when I started this paragraph!
Where does the past end and the present begin? Or indeed the future for that matter. None of them have definite boundaries like fossil layers or the sound barrier. Surely our past is more like the youngest course of a river, a river of time in which we were born and currently swim upstream, eventually bringing us to the open sea of the future.
In this sense we are always connected to all three temporal states aren't we?
Perhaps I'm just nostalgic as, I suspect, most vintage toy collectors are? I had to look up Nostalgia to be sure of what I meant. It is, according to Wiki, a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. It is a formation of a Greek compound, consisting of nóstos meaning "homecoming" and álgos meaning "pain, ache".
So, Nostalgia is like homesickness by the looks of it. I cannot deny that I loved my Sixties and Seventies childhood and think about it often. I wouldn't have a blog like this if I didn't. Vintage toys are like companions from that special time, inanimate travelers who, like me, have survived, bobbing along in that river again.
I suppose collecting them and writing about them is like being a salvage merchant, rescuing them from smashing on the rocks.
But do I live in the past? The modern usage of this term seems wholly negative, an assertion that someone is in someway not here in the present, when they clearly are. Surely a concern for the past is a good thing, a reflective state that allows us to take stock of the current and indeed plan for the years to come.
I cannot live in the future and I'm not sure if such a phrase exists in English. Perhaps some people live for the future, for a distant realm somewhere else and anywhere but here. Germans call it Fernweh, the opposite of Heimweh. That's not me I have to admit, although I adore the futuristic visions of Gerry Anderson, Stanley Kubrick et al.
For those of us who were lucky enough to have happy childhoods I cannot imagine anyone not being nostalgic. There is simply something care-free, worry-free, stress-free and pain-free about being a happy child. In a word, yes, free.
If living in the past is recalling those halcyon days and somehow preserving some of that sense of freedom whilst we busy ourselves in our modern adult lives then yes, I suppose I do live in the past.
How do you feel about this expression readers?
Nicely put. There are many aspects of the past that I really enjoyed and some of them were better than their equivalents now and some were worse.On the whole though, I'm pleased by the fact that many of my childhood interests (TVSF, model making are examples), are still going strong and form a link from my past to (hopefully) my future!
ReplyDeleteThe past has helped shape what we are, for better or worse. So unless we lose our memory, we carry our past with us.
ReplyDeleteI distrust the term nostalgia, it is all too often used by people who want to obliterate something positive from the past.
I suppose it would be unhealthy to obsess about the past. As you say Andy, Nostalgia can go too far. Not everything about the past was brilliant and my own past is complicated. But up to a certain year it was uninterrupted and as you say Kev, no doubt shaped who I am today more than any other time. Everything I loved then I love now and maybe that's the same for most people. Living In The Past is one of those glib modern remarks like You need to Get A Life or You Need To Get Out More!
ReplyDeleteGrowing up in Finland in the Seventies, my three wishes for my fairy godmother were: first, an unlimited access to all good animation (Disney, Warner, Hanna-Barbera) shown only sporadically on TV; second, that superheroes would take over film industry; and third, that all television would be storable & accessible for re-viewing. So the question about the past, for me personally, could be phrased "I have seen the future, but was it good?"
ReplyDeleteBlimey Arto! Everything came true: Disney Channel, Marvel Studios and VHS/DVD/Smart TV! Result! Retro-future! Now all we need are jet packs, space food and a restaurant on the Moon!
ReplyDeleteI think its very important to remember your past and keep ever expanding your experiences in the present.I love the fact that I can cherish my past and even revisit it often but I make sure that I take care of business in the present and learn new things. I might occasionally complain about this or that but I never truly feel out of touch with the present and I don't fear the future,BRING IT!
ReplyDeleteI probably live in the past more than most people, and have done so since the age of 5 years old. When we're young, we think we have forever (or at least it seems that we do), so a longing to return to an earlier time (when, even if we had a notion of our eventual demise, it seemed to be so far away that we didn't have to worry about it) is perfectly understandable. Of course, memories are in our minds, but re-acquiring a toy, book, or comic from the past makes a memory clearer and closer, and that's why tracking down a tangible reminder can be so addictive.
ReplyDeleteI embrace living in the past Woodsy, but I haven't neglected the present much either - although it sometimes takes me a while to catch up :-)
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