Life was better when I was a kid

[Deleted member 210577]

The thing with adults is, most of them get satisfaction out of the lives they lead. Build a business, have a family, or live an ordered bureaucratic life, or get drunk, watch football, fuck fuck fuck. I don't seem to find fulfilment in any of the things that keep other people happy.

There's this philosopher I like, an Enlightened man infact in the truest sense, who has something to say on Nostalgia. This is a section from a free online book written by someone who stayed on the farm of this man (link at the end):

"Moods are powerful things," he said quietly. "Fear, seduction, and nostalgia. These are the three moods of man. And the most powerful of these is nostalgia.

"You know, somebody once said the most painful thing on earth is a pleasant memory. This nostalgia that sometimes comes over us isn't an accident. It's a message. It has something to tell us. We’re programmed to indulge in life, but this haunting nostalgia is a subliminal message from another plane. It's the homing instinct of the mundane mind. At its best, it's what draws us back to the Father."

"But why such sadness?" I said. "Why the pain?"

"Because nostalgia is a window to the soul, and the soul is lost to man as he lives. Nostalgia is the soul's memory of prior experience. Touching it, you touch the Eternal."

His words seemed to find my thoughts and speak directly to them.

"Nostalgia is the door," he said. "The only door. It’s the one mood that makes man hungry for union with the Soul. Without it we'd be lost. But with the nostalgic mood comes the feeling that, yes, there is something. Something to become. This is the evenness--mankind's voice of rectitude. This is the even voice of man."

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From Chapter 22 of "After the Absolute" by David Gold, about his stay on Richard Rose's farm
http://www.richardrose.org/atatoc.htm

 

[Swimmingdancer]

Wow this is a fantastic thread guys! Thanks everyone for the great read

I don't really have much to add that hasn't been said. I can relate. I think that we can regain some of those childhood feelings of wonder through effort (mindfulness, creativity, love, travel, new experiences, changing our thought patterns and outlook on life), but it's not easy. I also think we tend to romanticize the past and mostly remember the good things. I actually read a study once that found that people remembered things much more fondly than they had actually felt about them at the time. For example they would ask someone how they felt and how much fun they were having every day/activity of a vacation, and them come back a couple months later and ask them the same questions about the things they did on their vacation, and they always said that it was way better and more fun than they had actually said at the time.

 

[blahman8000]

For some reason, I can't seem to remember very much about my early childhood. Or perhaps I remember as much as most people and am expecting more. My father often talks about how great me and my siblings' childhoods were, and that we were always happy. From the videos he took of back then, that does seem to be the case. But the things I remember most vividly seem to be the negative experiences. My most pleasant memories begin from the age of 12 or so. That's when friendships began to feel more meaningful, that's when my emotions expanded more, etc. In retrospect, even depression seemed to be accompanied by some kind of meaning and comfort. It was another medium to connect with others who felt the same way. It lent me further appreciation of music and art. It made the happier moments seem that much more precious.

I experience a lot of nostalgia, too. Oddly enough, I even become nostalgic over times that I recall feeling unhappy. I guess it's true what others have noted in this thread, that we tend to idealize the past. My past self would probably tell my present self, "What the hell is the matter with you? Why would you miss a time like this? I'm miserable!" I guess my present self would reply, "Because it gets much worse." I still had passion for life back then. Even sadness had some kind of passion to it. I still have emotions now, although they're mostly negative ones. I don't seem to have very much passion or spontaneity, though. Drugs sometimes do effectively bring it back, in certain ways. Particularly amphetamines.

I find nostalgia to be pleasant. I don't know why I don't feel it for my early childhood but I do for my teenage years. It's easy to dwell into it, though, and forget to make new memories.

 

[RaZkaL86]

Wow, I thought I was the only one around who's been constantly craving the past years when the world was fun, happy and carefree!!! I found a video on YouTube about this amusement park I used to go to when I was a child. It was called Mountain Park and my parents used to take me and my older brother and sisters there every other Sunday after my Mom got out of church(my father and us never went along; he stayed home and cooked up food and snacks to take with us, along with the cooler full of sodafor us kids and beer for them) and made a day of it. The park was closed in 1987 and is pretty much abandoned except a small part of it that's used for concerts and such. The rest is just lying there rusting away and used for paintball by the kids. If you're curious the vid is called "Mountain Park Memories, Holyoke, MA" and every time I see it I get all emotional and cry sometimes...wish sooooo badly to be back then again that I really wish tehy could invent a time machine to go back then instead of the miserable existence I live today because of drugs and all the bad choices I made along the way......