“Nostalgia—it’s delicate, but potent. Teddy told me that in Greek Nostalgia literally means “the pain from an old wound.” It’s a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone. This device isn’t a spaceship, it’s a time machine. It goes backwards, and forwards…it takes us to a place we ache to go again. It’s not called the wheel, its called the carousel. It lets us travel the way a child travels—around and around, and back home again, to a place where we know we are loved.”
-Don Draper from Mad Men
Over the next twenty-seven days, everywhere we go, our world will be saturated with Christmas. The day-to-day drudgery will come to a pleasant pause as this beloved holiday takes precedence in the lives of folks far and wide. There is really no escaping it. The Nostalgia will be thicker than a fruitcake. Those who held off celebrating until today will jump head first into a pool of eggnog—not literally—maybe more joyfully than those who have been watching Hallmark Christmas movies since July.
In the hit series Mad Men, actor Jon Hamm masterfully plays the role of a Madison Avenue advertising executive named Don Draper—a complicated, yet extremely talented individual whose ability to create a vision for certain products sets him apart from his co-workers at the ficticious ad agency, Sterling Cooper. During the first season, a rather poignant episode involves Draper’s pitch for the Kodak Carousel Slide Projector—a staple in many homes from the mid-1960s until the early 1980s. Those who remember the unique looking machine can probably recall the distinct scent that filled the room when one was running, or hear the familiar click when the button was pushed to advance to the next slide.
There are many parallels to what Draper was describing and the holiday season we now find ourselves in. The boxes and storage bins we get out of attic cubby holes, or from basement shelves, are filled with pure nostalgia—particularly for those who have celebrated many Christmases. As we pass from childhood into adulthood, it’s those ornaments and decorations which add that “twinge” in our hearts. Nostalgia in many ways helps us appreciate those moments probably more than when we actually lived them.
“Memory believes before knowing remembers.”
-William Faulkner
Quite possibly the toughest class I had the pleasure of taking during my time at St. Ignatius High School was one that focused solely on the works of William Faulkner, taught by the legendary Tom Pasko. Faulkner’s prose are extremely complex in both structure and meaning to say the least, and attempting to understand his writings usually results in a mind-numbing brain fog. One of the books we were required to read for that elective was called Light In August—a story that delves into racial segregation in the Deep South during the 1930s. The quote above from that Faulkner classic helps us to understand what Don Draper seems to be insinuating about nostalgia in that famous carousel episode.
Commentators and Faulkner experts have dissected this quote in a variety of ways. Some believe Faulkner is referring to our subconscious as the primary place these memories are stored. We view the past through a filter of memories that are deep inside of us, and often those memories are void of specific details from our lives at the time. But as soon as we take out those beloved holiday pictures and decorations, those specifics are then resurrected into our consciousness once again. Those twinges, in our hearts may very well be what happens to us “when knowing remembers.”
The details will come back to us as we hang ornaments on our trees, bake cookies using our grandmother’s old recipe, or listen to a Bing Crosby song that reminds us of someone who is no longer with us. We will remember our lives back then, both the good and the bad. It’s also during the holidays that we are sometimes reminded hindsight is 20-20 when it comes to certain people or events in our lives.
Those twinges will lead to different emotions in all of us as we go through the next month. But it’s probably best not to go too far down certain rabbit holes where we “ache to go again.” Doing this usually leads to having an emotionally rough holiday season and not appreciating the good things that have happened, are happening, and will happen down the road.
As we take the lids off of bins labeled “Xmas Stuff” and decorate our homes over the next few days, we are—as Jon Hamm’s character explains to Kodak executives—entering a “time machine.” One that “takes us to a place we know we are loved.” It is a yearly unlocking and conscious recognition of joyful memories for the most part. Maybe it can best be described as Noelstalgia.
-Tommy O’Sionnach
Yessir!!!! Was gonna add that but Tom much irony is a bad thing!!!!!!
"Noelstalgia" - love it! May your dive into the pool of eggnog be filled with enjoyment and happiness.