Talking to that kid

on nostalgia, loss, memory, and forgiveness

It’s a funny thing to look back. Some of us do it with nostalgia, remembering back to those “good ole days”; for others, it is with regret, wishing for some change in the past . . . and maybe this time in the present too.

This weekend, I spent some time in my hometown visiting my mother. And while there, along with my adolescent son, we looked through old yearbooks, pictures of me from 1982, 1989, laughing at clothing, hairstyles, remembering activities that I did not recall participating in, seeing some events that I would rather leave forgotten.

I texted a picture to my friend. He responded, “I wish I could talk to that kid.”

I know what he means.

Maybe this idea, being able “to talk to that kid”, is what makes the idea of time travel so compelling.

We exist in this present.

And there is the possibility of looking back with fondness in such a way that we wish we could go back there at times, sometimes remembering the “good old days” as better than they actually were.