Why We Can't Escape Nostalgia

"Accepting nostalgia as an ever-present condition allows us more agency in how we choose to engage the past. Instead of looking back with the only intention of recreating old joy, we can learn to fashion new circumstances that produce hope."

Is the prevalence of nostalgia today simply a marketing ploy to sell recycled experiences, or a truthful promise of how we might relive our past loves once again? That's the debate that writer Madison Jamar explores in an essay for Catapult. The answer, she writes, comes down to our intentions. If we can look into the past with joy, without asking for it to replace or fill holes in our present, then we can enjoy nostalgia as an experience rather than get lost in the futile search to relive something that has already passed.