Thursday, February 25, 2010

Nostalgia


Two things have recently happened to me. First, I had some Coke [the soda not the drug!] made with real sugar instead of corn syrup. I’ve also discovered a website that plays music, whole albums, without interruption. These have come together to produce something unexpected: nostalgia. That Coke that I enjoyed is made the way that it was made when I was a kid. It tasted like an old memory. And the music that I’ve listened to at that website isn’t the latest from somebody or other. I’ve listened to old stuff. Right now, it’s Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’. The other day it was ‘Tommy’ by The Who. Nostalgia.

Now, this can be fine or not. It all depends on how I respond to the feelings of nostalgia. There is a part of me that responds with a, ‘life was so different then, so much simpler, so much easier’. That, of course, is a lie. My teenage years [‘Tommy’ era] were anything but simple and easy. Right now ‘For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her’ is playing. It is a love song. It was my song about whoever it would be that I would marry. Nostalgia.

To want to return to the past because it was somehow easier makes no sense. The world was just as fallen then as it is now. But to long for a time when life will be different, simpler, easier, that’s good. Even so, come Lord Jesus.

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