In a post I wrote for We Live Simply yesterday, I was reminded of this column I wrote for The Belton Journal in August 2004. I got a little nostalgic and decided to repost it (with a couple updates) for those who may have missed it.
I’ve noticed something about today’s culture — for many, there’s a strange sense that “back in the day” things used to be different, things used to be better, things used to be amazing.
Back in the day we didn’t have socialist presidents, we didn’t have kids zoned out playing their Nintendo DS’s, we didn’t have teenagers so caught up in text messaging that they don’t know how to talk to their parents at the dinner table.
And with these memories, we’ve begun a never ending search for a better yesterday. A time when the flowers bloomed a bit brighter, the summers were cooler, our skin had less wrinkles, our waistlines were half the size they are now and gas was less than $1 a gallon.
For those who don’t pay much attention to professional wrestling, it tends to be a great illustrator of what’s happening in our modern culture. Professional wrestling plays up our stereotypes, our fears, our joys and turns them into a grand, spectacular show.
And in the wrestling world, for the past few years, people have gone gung-ho when retired wrestlers make their return to the ring.
(Professional wrestlers never really retire.)
When Hulk Hogan returned several years ago to the WWE (and now to TNA) it didn’t take long for Hulk-A-Mania to catch fire like it did in the mid-to-late 80’s.
People went berzerk for Hulk Hogan, a.k.a Terry Bollea, as he came running down the ramp in his trademark yellow and red tank tops.
And I’ll admit it — I was a Hulk-A-Maniac all over again.
I didn’t care that he was 50 years old. We were reliving the Hulk Hogan of the past, the one that we remembered watching growing up.
And to be honest, I was an even bigger fan this time around.
Nostalgia isn’t only rampant in the World Wrestling Entertainment Company, but all around us.
People have caught on to the nostalgia craze all over.
We all want to return to our past.
There’s a great sign along I-35 that advertises the city of Gruene, Texas as “Gently resisting change since 1872.”
And as of my last check, you can turn on VH1 almost anytime of the day and you can catch reruns of “I love the 70’s,” “I love the 80’s” and “I love the 90’s,” where actors, musicians and comedians reflect on the greatness of decades past.
And I’m just as big of a fan of those shows as I was to hear Hogan’s music hit and watch him tear into The Rock.
So, what is it about nostalgia that makes us yearn for yesterday?
According to Webster, nostalgia is “A sentimental yearning to return to an earlier time remembered as happier or more pleasant, or a former place evoking happy memories; a longing to experience again a former happy time.”
But you know what, they never teach nostalgia in a history class — because nostalgia is an imitation, or maybe better phrased — a limitation of the truth.
We simply block out the bad and relieve only the good times in our mind.
Will Rogers told us, “Things ain’t what they used to be and probably never was.”
Historian Owens Pomeroy said, “Nostalgia is like a grammar lesson: you find the present tense, but the past perfect.”
Sure, reflecting on the past is great.
I always have a blast sitting around with my friends lying about how great we were in high school and college and how things were so much better when we grew up.
But there’s a danger in enjoying too much nostalgia.
When we get so caught up in the past, we forget to look at the present and the future.
We want to return to the “good ole’ days.”
But if we really take time to look, we’ll see that the “good ole’ days” weren’t really as great as we thought they were.
The prophet Isaiah wrote, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!”
There is something bigger and better going on right now.
Today — May 4, 2010.
This is the best day ever — if you make it that way.
And change is a-comin’ — whether you or I like it.
I believe that if we stop and focus on the past for too long, we’ll end up loosing our grip on reality and the present.
While I love VH1 recapping the highlights of the 90’s, 80’s and 70’s, there are also a number of fads, toys and music that no one wants to return to.
And there are also a number of issues that those shows would never touch on, because if they did, we’d quickly lose all our nostalgia.
Does anyone really want to go back and relive the atrocities of the past?
The hostage situations?
The famine and AIDS outbreaks?
Does anyone want to go back and relieve the Challenger explosion?
Waco, Oklahoma City?
Chernobyl, the Iran Contra Affair or New Coke?
Even talking with my grandparents as often as they reminisced about growing up, I don’t think they would want to return to the depression — there’s a reason they called it the depression.
I don’t think anyone wants to return to World War I or II, the Korean War, the Vietnam war or Gulf Storm.
Yet as nostalgia goes, I’m sure in 2050 I’ll be sitting around with my grandkids, talking about how great 2010 was and how great the 2000’s were.
I’ll pull out my PDA and laptops and show my grandkids how technologically advanced we thought we were.
I’ll talk about how great the Play Station 2 and X-Box was and how amazing the first High Definition TV’s were — and they’ll look at me like an idiot.
Then they’ll go to history class and learn about terrorism and 9/11 and the fall of the stock market and think I’m nuts for wanting to go back to the “good ole’ days.”
And I’ll just smile and reminisce, wishing things were the way they used to be, when kids respected their elders and you could buy a burger, fries and a coke for under $7.
“If you’re yearning for the good old days, just turn off the air conditioning.” — Griff Niblack
