NOSTALGIA

I looked up the definition of nostalgia and came up with the following three suggestions:

A sentimental recollection: a mixed feeling of happiness, sadness, and longing when recalling a person, place, or event from the past, or the past in general

Those things that arouse nostalgia: something, or things, intended to arouse a feeling of nostalgia or to evoke the past in a way that arouses nostalgia

A feeling of homesickness: a longing for home or family when away from either

But for me they do not fully cover what I feel – and at times that feeling becomes increasingly stronger probably due to the fact I have lived and worked in so many different countries over my life.

For me, it represents a tension between mobility and displacement on the one hand, and dwelling and belonging on the other; whilst the former become ubiquitous and the latter become lost. – the whole being reconfigured as “nostalgia”.

I experience that tension between roaming and homing, sort of like trying to create an (impossible) truce between two warring factions or incompatible desires.

As Edward Thomas wrote:

“One aspect is going on and over the Earth; the other

would settle for ever in one place, as in a grave,

and have nothing to do with change”

I don’t have his words but the sentiment is mutual.

Finally, a quote from, I believe, W.G.Field – “nostalgia isn’t what it used to be”.

Until next time (and still wandering – and wondering)

Peripatetic Scribe