Other people are much more sentimental, hanging on to things that have long since held any value except their emotional meaning.
My father was highly sentimental. He had scrapbooks of all his Italian holidays, crammed with every conceivable souvenir of the trip - postcards, train tickets, boarding passes, restaurant menus. Nothing was too trivial to be discarded.
But my attitude has always been that once something's past it's past and there's no point in developing big emotional attachments and reminiscences. I have no photos of my childhood, no scrapbooks, no shelves of souvenirs and mementos, no carefully-preserved old school uniform. I'm totally focused on the present and future rather than the past.
I suppose that makes me sound rather cold and detached, but that's the way I am. I prefer to be having new experiences rather than reliving old ones.
I do have photos of my brother in law, my sister and my niece, but that's mainly to make up for my not actually seeing them very often, since they live in southern England.
In any case all the significant events in my past - like my schooldays, my workplaces, my holidays, my various homes - are lodged vividly in my memory and easily retrievable. I don't need a scrapbook to remind me of my walks round the Venetian alleyways or the train ride through the Rocky Mountains. And if I did need a reminder, Google would soon fill in the gaps.
Ack, I am too sentimental, and I have to realise that most other people aren't as sentimental as me. You're lucky, Nick.
ReplyDeleteSx
Ms Scarlet: As long as all that sentiment isn't stopping you from enjoying the present....
DeleteI held on to a lot of travel and school stuff, but got rid of most of it a decade ago, not wanting anyone else to have to do it when I’m gone. I do have a lot of pictures, though.
ReplyDeleteBijoux: Indeed, you don't want someone else to have to deal with all that stuff one day.
DeleteI'm the exact opposite, I photo document everything, and always have. Am I bragging or complaining? I'm not sure. I only know I enjoy old photos.
ReplyDeleteColette: I know quite a lot of people who photo document everything. I've never felt the urge myself.
DeleteI wouldn't say I'm sentimental, I don't dwell on the past but I like the bits and pieces that remind me of the dear dead ones and the slivers of joy that can mark my days with their presence if only for a few seconds.
ReplyDeleteXO
WWW
www: Sounds like your sentiment is kept within reasonable limits.
DeleteI am sentimental about certain things. I have many heirlooms going back the great-great grandparents I would never get rid of, though I'm sure my son will. I do have many, many photos taken by my maternal family, they recorded everything. I even have an ancient, well-preseved camera. So yes, I keep those things. I also have all my year books from school and all the photos from my first wedding!
ReplyDeleteSandra: Wow, sentimentality is your middle name! Quite something that you still have your old school books. I dumped mine pretty quickly.
DeleteLikewise, Nick. I don't need to keep things to bring back memories.
ReplyDeleteFly: The memories are very vivid, I don't need anything else to remind me.
DeleteI have photo albums of my childhood and our daughter's childhood but I recently deleted a ton of photos of our adulthood travels and events. They don't seem to trigger the same pleasant memories.
ReplyDeleteLinda
Linda: Yes, in fact photos may trigger unpleasant memories if they remind you of something upsetting.
DeleteI am in fact sentimental. I've made scrapbooks, I keep small things. I even made a school days book for my daughter to have when she became an adult. It had mementos from her 12 years in school.
ReplyDeleteMary: I think that's what you call a labour of love! Twelve years' worth of mementos, that's quite something.
DeleteNo, not sentimental at all. I was once, till I realized my children were not the least bit interested in family history. So, I jettisoned it. Now they have questions for which I've long forgotten the answers.
ReplyDeleteJoanne: I don't know if my sister is interested in the family history, but certainly I'm not. I'm alive and kicking and that's enough for me!
DeleteYou brought up a good point, Nick, and for years I have been keeping photo albums and recently started wondering, why? Many of these have family photos going back years, but I am considering leaving them as is, frozen in time, so to speak and not continuing as it does take a fair amount or more to order prints and then put in albums.
ReplyDeleteBeatrice: It's quite a business, maintaining photo albums. Jenny has some but she doesn't look at them very often!
DeleteI have kept a few things from my past but most things seem to get to ap point where I just don't care any more and then I throw them away.
ReplyDeleteI rather wish I had more photos but realistically I never really look at them.
My mother was recently talking about buying grave plots and I thought she might as well not waste her money. I remember lots of people fondly but I have never visited a grave, it's just not how I think
Kylie: Like you I remember lots of people fondly but I have no interest in visiting graves. Personally I want to be cremated.
DeleteHello Nick, what happened in the past is part of what we are today. It doesn't mean that we have to collect things and walk on memory lane all the time. I'm living fully in the present , but if I behave like I do in my daily life the roots were built in my life before. If it is sentimental to call back from time to time nice events then I am sentimental. We know that family stories are transmitted even if there are no open discussions about it and :the "past is the past" is not always true. The past cannot be changed of course , but can explain something about our behaviour.
ReplyDeleteHannah
Hannah: Nothing wrong with recalling nice events, I do that all the time. It's the over-attachment to those nice events, all the mementos and keepsakes, that I don't understand. Certainly our past can explain a lot of our behaviour, but dwelling on the past may not be helpful.
ReplyDeleteNick, I agree of course.
ReplyDelete