Hello! Is it me you’re looking for? I doubt it but since I’ve already got you here…
Very much a quickie today. I’ve much I wish to accomplish this evening and will need soon to return to tasks of a more legitimate nature…
This may initially seem like a topic previously discussed but this piece is from the reverse perspective.
“The Cutting Tomb Floor”, June 26, 2018
The good ol’ days are naught but illusion
Memory muddles clear to confusion
Snipping and editing horrible bits
The finished product obscured by the glitz
The past always seems better than in truth
Shining patina, nostalgia and youth
Ponder firmly, recall veracity
Return to now, renewed tenacity.
It always amused me growing up listening to everyone opine on how nothing is as good as the old days. Whether it’s SNL, public school, society en masse, I didn’t think it could be some queer global phenomena. Best I can figure is that our brains are disinclined to dedicate memory banks to inferior times. Whether intended as self-defense or just editing for efficiency purposes it does seem a rather prominent feature of human intellect. Or we’re all just raving loons. To be fair, the two are not mutually exclusive.
-Alex Blaikie
Categories: poetry Uncategorized writing
dreadpoetssobriety
A broken mind held together by cellophane and some tack.
Loved it ❤️
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Great post!
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Thanks so much!
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Ha, the good old days indeed! Maybe big picture people are able to look back and weigh the good and the bad, but detail people just zoom in what they miss? Or maybe it’s a logical people vs emotional people thing…
If I have to pick one theory I’ll go with the raving loons theory.
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It seemed the most relevant:)
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A simple truth written in the concise beauty of poetry. Historians have us learn from the past; Futurists declare we must project and prepare. Me? Let’s just live each moment as if it is our last and be thankful.
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Sue so wise!
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I think nostalgia is a wish to find a familiar, safe place. A place we create for a moment’s respite from the things we know now, based on a true story. 🙂
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“Stay right here, ‘cause these are the good old days.” – Carly Simon
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I prob think the comment’s about me:)
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I attribute it to just being young and clueless about how bad things were (combined with not having to pay bills). For example, despite the 90s being more dangerous than the world today, I associate it with “feeling” safe than actually being safe.
(Great work, too, by the way!)
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Thanks very much. Def the naïveté if youth creates the only potentially true “safe space” actually possible. Otherwise the term is anathema to reality. Thanks again though!
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I agree and I like how you put it “our brains are disinclined to dedicate memory banks to inferior times”. I think that is what made nostalgia more precious than the present moment, as our memories leave out the trauma and memorialize the goodness.
In this case, love would be the victorious one.
Thanks for sharing this brilliant post. 🙂
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Thanks so very much! You’re wonderful:)
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I wish my brain was disinclined to dedicate memory banks to inferior times. On the contrary, it took me a long time to realize there were good times among the bad during my teen years.
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It’s odd, but as much as there’s a segment of “good old days” in my memory banks (mostly having to do with my childhood horse), most of the memories that come to me unbidden are the ones that bring me to tears. I’ve been trying to write about some of the good ones lately. Or, at least the quirky/funny ones. It helps.
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You’re not the only one who favoured this viewpoint. I suppose I’m just blessed to have had a past worth longing for in the first place. Best of luck Dear Angela! We look forward to reading them:)
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Hello, I always say that a blast from the past should remain in the past especially if it is a relationship or a situation that went sour. Thanks for the succinct post.
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