TheDayWeSatThereIWasSomewhereElse
Someone asked me today if it is possible to feel nostalgic about something you’ve never experienced. As a writer, I had to say absolutely. I say writer, but what I really mean is want-to-be-occasionally-never-keep-up-with-my-blog-jotter-down-of-notes-and-ideas-that-usually-make-no-sense-er. But really. I write often about things I’ve never experienced. Although, I don’t know if you can quite say never experienced. Because, usually, these stories, these thoughts, these ideas, about these made-up moments…. have a feeling derived from experiences and feelings and emotions I’ve probably felt before. They are projected onto something, onto a new idea. All the flavors and colors of meals and paintings I’ve seen before thrown onto a blank canvas, while evoking some kind of whimsical reminisce…making up a story about the plaid-wearing man at wall street, writing a commentary between a girl and a boy that met at an airport, they all have qualities of things I have experienced before. But, the thing about nostalgia, is it is an overwhelming idea that everyone experiences, but never the same, because we are all individuals with unique ties. There are common threads of things that make us feel “nostalgic” — movies from the 50’s, an old watch in a thrift store….the sound of a truck made in ‘65. We can all feel some strand of nostalgia from these things. But when it comes to the smell of her hair on the bench that day you drank an entire bottle of wine on the river, or the sound of steaming milk over the smile of your first boyfriend in high school that used to visit at the coffee shop…these moments have a unique print of nostalgia…one that will never be recreated perfectly in a fictional story, but rather incorporated in a sometimes unintentional, not even personally acknowledged way. Perhaps that is what separates the way Foer writes from the way that Frey does…the uncommon details of their nostalgic moments…producing a brewing of experiences and notions they incorporate (maybe) knowingly or not. Or perhaps this entire theory is the result of too much coffee and a heart that beats too fast in the excitement of posting again…or in the excitement of meeting someone that can throw you onto a computer, fingers typing far to fast, while sitting drinking more coffee because you can’t stand not to write anymore. Either way, Hello, again. And happy January, followers.
