N... Is For Nostaligia

Reflecting Is Usually Where it Begins...

N... IS FOR NOSTALGIA

The effect of nostalgia is quite potent for someone like me.  I have always been a firm believer that the past is all that truly matters, especially in the bigger scheme of things.

History repeats itself...

Learn from your mistakes...

If you think about the concept of time, it becomes quite evident:  The future is intangible, and therefore might as well not even exist.  There is no way for us to predict what is going to happen, therefore we are encouraged to live in the moment.  Carpe diem...  And yet, the present exists in a moment of time so brief and fleeting, that it has no real relevance until it has already come to pass.  Therefore, the past is all that really matters.

It is not that we should dwell upon the past, or live in its wash of hazy recollection, but that we should look to our pasts in order to better our futures.  We can learn from our mistakes, but just as importantly, we can learn from our successes.  What makes us better, or worse, as individuals exists in unique pockets of our past and we should all take those moments, and use them to our benefit.

I have had people tell me that they had traumatic childhoods, or that my reasoning is flawed in some cases.  I respect their views, but I believe my theory to stand true, at least to me.

"What if you were molested as a child?  Would you want to cling to that past?" I was once asked.

And my answer is, I would.  Fortunately, I was loved by my parents and never subjected to such pains and torments, but if I had been, I would hope that I would look to that dark and negative experience as a place for inspiration.  I would hope that it would encourage me to ensure that all children were safe from such harms, and that my own hypothetical future children would be free from such terror.

That is how I feel we can build from the past in the bigger scheme of things...

That is the heavy end of the spectrum though.  There is also the creative end of things as far as writing is concerned.  Without experience; without the nostalgia factor, and by extension a past well lived and travelled, a writer would have very little to write about.

When I was young, I was positive monsters existed.  They were everywhere, and I was constantly jumping at invisible shadows and things that go bump in the night.  I spent many sleepless nights convinced that my entire existence was about to be snuffed out, and yet I wouldn't change a single second of it.

A few of my inspirations - and one autographed copy!

Fear is one of the things we lose first.  It is perhaps the most primal emotion and we soon learn that there is not terror lurking around every bend; outside every branch scratched bedroom window.  The works of authors Stephen King and Dean R. Koontz populated my tween and early teen reading lists only to be replaced by the incredible works of Ray Bradbury, and in more recent years, the fantasies of Charles DeLint and Neil Gaiman.  I embrace the fantastical, but especially so when it is written in a way that is seems a little too plausible.  A little too much like maybe the author might have an inside track...

That is the gift of Bradbury, and what is often referred to as his successors.  The thing is, none of his so-called "successors" (and this is a guess on my part) would like to be referred to in that way, just as I hope to not be viewed as a successor to any of the authors I so admire.  Admiration is the key, and each new generation of authors creates new admirers for those who came before, and new inspiration for those who will come after.

I prefer to think that we are all creators working on one massive loom that is steadily weaving a great quilt of stories beneath which future generations of writers can seek shelter, and in turn, pick up the loose ends and continue what was started before.

The nostalgia factor can be potent and it is something that I can always see traces of in my favourite works of art.

Growing up, one of the novels that I read and re-read the most was Boy's Life by Robert R. McCammon.  That magical book was full of nostalgia, but more importantly, it was full of plain old magic.  My remaining copies are so battered from use that they no longer seem able to be read (something I must remedy soon) so I downloaded it from iTunes to always have with me.  I remember there being a quote early on in that modern masterpiece about how we are all born into a world of magic and wonder and how over time, it is slowly scrubbed, religioned and educated out of us.

I hope that is not the case with you.  I hope that you are still clinging to all the magic that nostalgia has to offer and that you are spreading that magic far and wide.

I encourage you to check out these authors, and to re-familiarize yourselves with some of the authors who originally inspired you.  And when you go to sleep tonight, make sure you curl up under a quilt woven from nothing but the purest of magic and nostalgia...

That's where the best of dreams take place, the dreams of childhood that will inspire you onward.