To those of you in your twilight years?

Question

I was just wondering if you look back on life as a roll of good times, or whether you see all of the missed opportunities and mistakes you made? How have you interpreted nostalgia?

Thanks!

Answer 1

A roll of good times !

Answer 2

Well, as at 70, I'm expecting at least 30 more, there is a lot of time for more experiences.

From the beginning until now? My regrets do not include missed opportunities, I've had a really interesting fun and full life. Pretty much reached my goals and loved the journey. My regrets are reflecting on relationships in which I could have been less selfish, sins I've committed I so wish I could undo. Even tho I am still making mistakes, I hope to spend the next 30 being the kindest most worthwhile person I can be. And that means stringently controlling myself when I see or hear things that to me are ignorant or antisocial.

Answer 3

I don't know if I'm considered to be in my twilight years (a commercial the other day said that 40 is the new 20 lol) but when I look back on my life, I see all the good times and laugh about them, I think of all the missed opportunities and mistakes and I try to learn from them (and occasionally roll my eyes at how stupid I can be lol).

Answer 4

I have just realized that nostalgia is not what it used to be any more. And by the way I am still having a roll of good times.

Answer 5

"Long ago and far away, I dreamed a dream one day and now that dream is here beside me....." With a twist, these lyrics by Ira Gershwin mirror the definition of nostalgia.

Webster's says that nostalgia, based on the Greek nostos, is "a longing for something long ago or far away" but more strictly, as your question defines, is a longing to return.

Gershwin did not limit nostalgia to the past. His 'far away' was set in the future, in a dream, in a longing.

For your second question: Nostalgia for me relates to past and future, to present and to distance. For me it aspects time, space and eternity. One can experience nostalgia in regret and in hope. Nostalgia can be both individual and shared among people. The loss of a shared nostalgia is the twilight of death for a nation or culture.

If you limit all your nostalgia to the past that is where you will stay, crying in your beer. If you limit your nostalgia to the idea of some dictionary, political or science dude; answers to your own questions, in mind and heart, become extremely limited.

With Gershwin, I like to have my nostalgia seen in the future* and realized in the present. Nostalgia, past, present or future, should always be sweet, even if it hurts a little.

Well you asked! lol. If you cannot relate to anything above, here is an old German proverb that can summarize nostalgia ---

"To soon old, to late smart."
---------------------------------------------

Answer 6

It's a bit of both really, if what I remember isn't as good as I had wished then I just resolve to make the most of the time I have left and not to make as many mistakes. But we should all look back on life as a roll of good times, as you put it, as well as a learning experience!

Answer 7

Twilight? The light is dimming... my eyelids so heavy...:)
It's not one or the other, but a mix. It's not a roll of good times, but a poignant mixture of happiness and sorrow. It's not missed opportunities, it's things that were not meant to be. Nostalgia is like a warm, fragrant cup of tea to be sat down with and lingered over. Thanks for the opportunity to share something meaningful with you.

Answer 8

i think a mixture of both really, i stayed in a loveless mariage far too long but have had good times as well

Answer 9

Dunno about Twilight Years. This life seems mainly in the Twilight Zone.