Nostalgia is a Pipe Dream
Posted on Jul 11, 2024 by Jon Brudvig
Although I love history, I am beginning to learn that nostalgia is a pipe dream. When we select idealized memories to fit the current narrative of our lives, we risk oversimplifying the challenges, struggles, and complexities of the past.
Reflecting on the powerful lure of nostalgia, Brené Brown, professor, author, and podcaster, says that when we compare the “good old days” to today, often the present ones do not measure up. “The good old days” are fixed in time with no new competition and no new decisions to be made during them, notes Brown. The present, however, is still sorting itself out, still working through its messy, complicated, and unanticipated challenges, still figuring out whether it will become “good” old days or “bad” old days, or just ordinary forgettable days.
The danger of too much nostalgia is being trapped in an idealized version of the past, one in which we reconnect with the happy emotions of a romanticized past — often remembering the laughter and good times, while conveniently forgetting the struggles, heartaches, and challenges of yesteryear. What emerges is a rose-hued version of the past that may never have truly existed. One that anchors us in a fictionalized version of time gone by, thereby thwarting exploration, adaptation, and experimentation.
I get it. The past few years have been challenging for a lot of us, including me. When we feel overwhelmed by the challenges and uncertainties of the present, nostalgia can be an attractive coping mechanism, albeit one that does not lead us anywhere. Nostalgia will not make our challenges disappear or sort themselves out on their own. Only we, a Spirit-empowered community of faith, can do that by working together to name our fears, concerns, and dreams for the future, trusting that the One who calls and sends us accompanies us along the way, helping us to work through the messy and complicated challenges of our present circumstances.
The challenge, then, is to cherish the past and its traditions without letting nostalgia trap or blind us to the possibilities that lie ahead — to the future that God is inviting us into.
And though we may grieve for what has been lost, we also trust in the promise of the empty tomb. The promise that death never has the final say. The promise that God is at work creating new life, new possibilities, new opportunities, and new beginnings.
In Christ,
Pastor Jon