It’s the season for reunions with family and friends once again. We spend so much of the year working and studying, striving to achieve goals we set at the start of the year. I find it so interesting that it’s the Christmas season that always sparks the idea for a much-needed break from the hustle and bustle of daily life to get together with people you love.
Seeing people you haven’t seen for the longest time is especially fun. In those kinds of get-togethers, the conversation eventually flows toward reminiscing—looking back at the good times, and laughing about the bad ones.
It’s because of the flashback-y nature of the season that we here at The Thing thought it’d be timely to make our December-January theme NOSTALGIA.
Nostalgia isn’t about recreating the past, though. As we implied in our call for submissions earlier this month, the nostalgia we’re talking about isn’t the kind that brings the past back to life. PaCho put it best in an email she sent to the staff when we were brainstorming for ideas:
The past (and the future, for that matter) are really just different forms of the present. It's in the lyrics to a song you still know the lyrics to even if you haven't heard it in maybe three years; the face of a friend who's taken off their braces.
It's not rebirth. You're not bringing anything back. It's bright, vivid, and here.
Similarly, former Esquire editor Erwin Romulo talked about society’s obsession with nostalgia in an interview published in The Philippine Star:
It’s a U2 lyric. “If you glorify the past, the future dries up.” I think it’s true. There’s a romance about the past. I used to have a painful nostalgia for things that were before my time, but now I realize that at least gave me a bit more perspective of what’s happening in the present. So I’m not too hopeful about the future but I still try. It gave me a sense of history, which is sorely lacking in a lot of people these days.
This month, we’re focusing on remembering, but not reliving. We’ve got coloring pages, comfort food, and Cardcaptor Sakura, so check back every weekend for new stuff!
And as a final note: To those of you who’ve stuck around, to those of you just recently stumbled upon our sparkly header, and to those of you who’ve gone the next step and submitted something this year, THANK YOU. You have no idea how much your support means to us.
‘Til next year,
Gaby
Poster by Yeda Porcalla
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