the toxic impulse of nostalgia

“…I consider nostalgia to be a toxic impulse. It is the… yearning delusion that the past was better [than the present]…” - John Hodgman, in Vacationland

Last night, we opened a package of cookies from the Publix bakery and my husband made a pot of coffee. A young couple, both in their early 20s, sat on the couch in our living room. They are getting marred in a little over a month. My husband is doing the wedding, and when he agrees to perform a ceremony, he asks that the couple engage in four sessions of premarital counseling with him (and me, if they agree).

There is nothing like two people who are about to get married and are excited about getting married. Their enthusiasm is contagious, and for a few minutes last night I wished I could travel in time back to when Christian and I were in the same spot. We were both 22, and the whole world was ahead of us. We had almost no money, we both had entry level jobs, and we couldn’t have been happier. We didn’t have kids yet.

But upon further r…