March 23, 2023

Pastel colors, golden hour sun, a piazza filled with people, my favorite piazza, a city filled with people (again)

“What’s your relationship with nostalgia?”
-Last week my brother was here for a visit and he asked me this question.

At first, I thought of our childhood and growing up in the 90s. The Christmas village we used to build on top of our baby grand piano. I thought about building forts and playing outside and hiking in the mountains and Asheville, NC.

After that it made me think of Rome. Of a city that lives and breathes nostalgia, especially for the people who are lucky enough to visit. The Romans still dress up when they leave the house, athleisure isn’t as ubiquitous and it certainly isn’t worn by the older generation.

There is a sense of decorum that one might associate with ‘the greatest generation’ (which in my case means my grandparents).

My relationship with nostalgia is over-romanticizing the past.

What’s yours?

I have nostalgia for things that were and the ones that were not, too.

I live in a city surrounded by echoes of the past, hesitant to ring in the future, hesitant to evolve (isn’t that true for so many of us?), basking in the glory of the old.

Patina paint walls and 500 year old buildings and 2,000 year old ones, too.

My relationship with nostalgia is ever-evolving. I shed old familiar patterns. I embrace (or at least accept) the chaos of letting go of what I thought things were supposed to look like. I gently remind anyone who will listen (thank you.) that there aren’t really any rules.

I just saw a meme (important news source) that said:
Tradition is succumbing to peer-pressure from dead people.

And while I’d like to fully accept that mic drop as truth, I can’t. It isn’t that black and white. There’s gray. Always.

And the traditions in Rome and the nostalgia of the city are part of the reason I’m (still) swept off my feet by her majesty.

And you? What’s your relationship with nostalgia?