Nostalgia is a dangerous drug. Like paint, it “can cover a multitude of sins.” – sorry about that quip. It’s an old sailor’s way of saying that it conceals but doesn’t repair. I am wordly and rueful about nostalgia when I drag that old saying up. I get nostalgic about the coast, sailing, and being on storm-tossed waters in the 34-foot ketch Psyche.
When I go down to the coast, I’ll still scan the harbor for the damned boat. It was the bane of my existence sometimes. When the repair schedule was behind, I had to provision for a trip alone, rowing out to check the mooring on a winter’s morning or discovering a patch of rot in a railing.
Despite that, I see us off Sequin Light sailing towards Monhegan, off on an adventure. Do you see what I mean about nostalgia being a dangerous drug?
I’ll finish with another old seaman’s quip: “Grumble I may, but go I shall.” If I saw her swinging at her mooring tomorrow morning, I’d hop in the skiff and row to her.
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I hear you! New Years Eve blues, maybe.. Happy 2024, Lou. I hope you find her.
It’s probably best if I don’t…my wife would not like the competition…
🙂 true.. a beloved boat is the greatest threat!
Ahhh…personal experience?
Husband obtained a wee 16′ fishing motor boat this past summer…he doesn’t fish, and he doesn’t go far, but he was never home and never up for any other kind of outing! What can I say, she’s a crazy little redhead! However, I suspect you and Psyche would lose whole weeks out there…
Nostalgia is a drug. In Gabriel Garcia Marquez book, 100 years of solitude, the town of Macondo died from nostalgia. I think nostalgia is one of the reasons for the political turmoil we’re living with.
Yes, but most nostalgia is rooted in a vision of a past reality. I’m not sure that there is even a grain of truth in the nostalgic idiocy of the MAGA movement.
I don’t think there is. I think MAGA is based on a fairy tale with a few idyllic images tossed in to satisfy some residual need for credibility and evidence.
I think you’re right on target with that observation. but let’s not forget the stolen soundtrack. they always seem to be getting warned not to use music that they have no permissions for. Very ham handed.
I think Neil Young should’ve let them go ahead and us his song. It’s bleakly accurate.
Here’s one attributed to a Nantucket sea captain. I came across it in a book years ago: “Most people don’t give a damn about your troubles, and the rest are damn glad of them” LOL! Not exactly in the spirit of your post today, yet nostalgia is one of those emotions that often is so individualized that you find no one else feels the same way as you about the place or time: “It stunk, I tell you! I wouldn’t have the 1960s again for anything! War! Assassinations! Riots!” Sad voice, “But John Lennon! Woodstock…! Jimi Hendrix? No? How about the Summer of Flowers?”
I say nostalgia is fine because it connects us with positive elements in our past, perhaps is an origin of hope for more positive things happening in our futures. Somewhere in that Nantucket sea captain’s life, there was a little boy who aspired to go to sea, to fish, to be a success at what he did. I bet he grew up and forget to let nostalgia inspire hope for something better than miserable people wishing him ill or ignoring his pain that he perceived were the only people in his life.