IF only we could turn back the hands of time. I guess many of us now are looking back at yesteryears or even moments that gave us joy or inspiration.
When we could gather with friends in a cinema or café and filled it with laughter.
When the halls of Congress were filled with men of erudition, dignity, integrity and patriotism.
When our leader truly led his countrymen and unified a nation.
Mistaken notion
As novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez said: “We grow up with dreams in our eyes and songs on our lips and we discover that life is not what we thought it would be. And then, we discover nostalgia.”
Nostalgia is described as a sentimentality or yearning for the past, most often for a period or place with fond personal associations.
There was a time when nostalgia used to be a medical condition – the so-called Swiss illness, or homesickness when, in the 1600s, physicians observed in Swiss mercenaries and fighters an extreme pining for home.
They initially thought that these symptoms were due to damaged brain cells, which also resulted in fainting, high fever, stomach troubles, and even death.
Pining for home
Longing for home, of course, has always been true for soldiers who are suddenly wrested from the comforts of their family nest and sent to do battles in a strange land.
We always look for anchors or roots.
I seem to remember reading how the song “White Christmas” by American balladeer Bing Crosby sent hundreds of Americans fighting in strange World War II fronts crying for home.
I could imagine them thinking of warm milk and death.
Nostalgia could be a form of melancholia, the sigh of a pain for a possibility that could or could not be there.
What about you, what days do you long for in your past?
Alaala, nang kayo ay mag-sweetheart pa? When she felt soft and warm and smelled of Johnson’s Baby Cologne, and he of English Leather?
Smell and touch are strong evokers of nostalgia, scientists say. They go through the amygdala, or the emotional seat of the brain.
Littlest of memories
Music and weather, too, are strong triggers.
I remember sitting on the window grills from the second floor with my sister watching people wading through a flood on Esguerra Street in San Andres, while my Dad played Harry Belafonte in full volume.
You can recall a thread of apparently insignificant moments and they would constitute a comforting blanket.
Do not ever think that nostalgia is an indulgence.
Let me draw from Wikipedia: “The modern view is that nostalgia is an independent, and even positive, emotion that many people experience often.”
“Nostalgia has been found to have important psychological functions, such as to improve mood, increase social connectedness, enhance positive self-regard, and provide existential meaning.”
Meaning of life
“Many nostalgic reflections serve more than one function, and overall seem to benefit those who experience them,” it adds.
Although nostalgia could be triggered by negative feelings, it can increase one's mood and heighten positive emotions.
These can stem from feelings of warmth or coping that nostalgic recollections bring.
Since nostalgia also sometimes involves memories of people one was close to, this can increase one's sense of social support and connections. It can be an anti-loneliness mechanism.
There are hundreds of studies on nostalgia. They may indicate how the brain works but, to this writer, these only emphasize the narrow, nebulous band between happiness and desperation, between reality and illusion.
The same entry said that “nostalgia helps increase one's self-esteem by buffering threats to well-being and also by initiating a desire to deal with problems or stress.”
Inducing nostalgia
“Nostalgia correlates positively with one's sense of meaning in life,” it says.
The researchers induced nostalgia in their respondents.
We do that, too, consciously or subconsciously. When we are alone or with the family or friends.
We may find joy and, sometimes, sorrow. Either way, we feel clarified. We find ourselves refreshed like imbibing fresh buko water on a summer day.
If we are aware that we could look back, therefore, we could build forward.
When we took our children to their first musical play or their first experience with white sand, the wife and I had the conscious aim to make memories of these indelible, if not always pleasant.
Music as triggers
Because we know that there will be periods of time that they will draw from this reservoir of memories to feel connected and assured.
We feel justified when the children recall precise points in the past and laugh about them. And now, they follow the same path.
This pandemic has set all of us into more reflections, some in strange territories.
I do not know if this had anything to do with nostalgia but, these days, I find myself drawn to old love songs that only hurting women could express.
I find my eyes misting. Is this because of remorse? Hmmm.