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Why do human beings have a tendency to reflect on the past through rose-colored glasses? What is it about living in the past that makes us feel safe and comfortable?
Why do human beings have a tendency to reflect on the past through rose-colored glasses? What is it about living in the past that makes us feel safe and comfortable?
Because there actually WERE no junkies robbing people at the gas station in their home town thirty years ago? And now there are. I feel more comfortable with the town thirty years ago, objectively.
They say people tend to reflect on the past when things aren't going too well in the present.
I think that a little nostalgia is healthy. When I want to think back to earlier days, one particular year always comes to mind: 2005. I hooked up that year with my now-wife and settled on marketing as my field, which I work in to this day. No other year of my life has been nearly as consequential.
From a personal perspective, great wife, great parents .... hell, a great loving family. I lucked out.
But all dead now except for a brother, yes a great guy too, but who lives far away.
You make a good point here.
Sometimes it's not romanticizing the past, it's missing the people who were here then.
I spent a few years as a single mom living in an extended family situation. My grandmother and parents were there, as well as an also-divorced brother whose daughter came on weekends. It was a tumultuous time in my personal life as my marriage had crumbled and I was broke from the debt he left behind, but it was also a good time with my family.
Over five or six years, my father, then my grandmother, then my brother died. I still have good memories of the years when we were all together, and I revisit those memories because in them, those people I loved were still here.
1. It's you mind's way of saying "Life can be better, here's the proof!"
2. The past was indeed better, and there is a real anxiety that the world's going to be worse in the future.
Although, for number 2, there's also the possibility that your brain would view the past in a NEGATIVE way, to help prepare you for the grim future. Much like what a nightmare is supposed to do.
Life was simple. No cell phones or crazy technology. Kids actually played outside and had no need to hang out in the house all day. I like the conveniences of some technologies that make older peoples life a bit easier though.
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