Rose-coloured Spectacles

This week's quote is by Marcel Proust. "Sehnsucht lässt alle Dinge blühen." Which means "Nostalgia makes all things bloom."

Which I guess is about living in the past, or looking back to the past and only remembering the good bits. For example, if I think about Summer holidays when I was a child, the sun is always shining and I am always happy.

Whereas actually, if I think back objectively, rather than just being nostalgic about it, I can definitely remember any number of rainy days in Wales, when we spent our time indoors, playing board games. Which was enjoyable in another way, but not wall-to-wall sunshine.

Sometimes, nostalgia is harmless. Looking back at happy memories is harmless. But when we look back at the past and re-write it, it can be dangerous. I can never hear the phrase "the good old days" without a shudder. Because they weren't... The good old days are a product of selective amnesia, that we fall for at our peril.

Politicians are masters (and mistresses) of the nostalgia game. Current policies are advocated, because they will bring us back to a glorious past. Which never existed. Not ever.

The only time that is real is the present moment. All else is either memory, or anticipation. So both have an element of fantasy about them, because memory is sometimes faulty and anticipation is often idealised, rarely realistic.

I wonder, how many present moments do we skate over, not appreciating them, because we are too busy either yearning back to a fictionalised past or hoping for an idealised future?

Anticipation and Experience

We have just come back from a lovely holiday in Rome. We visited many of the most famous sites - the Colosseum, the Forum, St Peter's Square, the Sistine Chapel, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, and so on. The sun shone, the sky was a deep and vivid blue, and there was even a gentle breeze. And it was amazing to see these iconic buildings and sculptures in real life, having seen photos of them so often before.


And yet the things that enchanted me about the Imperial City were not what I had expected. Yes, standing in St. Peter's Square or in the Colosseum or among the ruins of the Forum did take my breath away, and all these things were truly impressive, and I'm really glad I've seen them. But what I really loved about Rome was strolling through the narrow streets of Trastavere, savouring the beauty of the buildings and the joy of coming out of a narrow street into a sunlit square with the inevitable little jewel of a local church, or wandering around the lively Campo de' Fiori, looking at all the wonderful flowers and foodstuffs, and trying to decide what to bring home as a souvenir, or sitting outside one of the many restaurants in the sunshine, just people-watching. And the wonderful food, and the statues on every corner. And having the time to talk about life, the universe and everything with our two children-no-longer-children, with us on holiday for probably the last time.

If you had asked me, before we left for Rome, what I was really looking forward to, I would have enumerated the sites I hoped to see, and how impressed I expected to be with it all. But anticipation and reality were very different. The enchantment was not in the magnificent, in the impressive, but in the vivid light, the mellow paint of the buildings, and the serendipity of wandering freely, open to what we might discover next.

A Time of Anticipation

Last Friday, my daughter and I went to our first University Open Day, at Sheffield. It was an exciting day, opening up new possibilities and opportunities for her.

The campus was full of Year 12 students and their parents, all trying to decide whether Sheffield was the university for them. I expect that most of them, like us, will be spending the next few weeks visiting other Universities, to enable them to make an informed decision about their futures.

They then have to wait until mid-August, until they get the results of their AS levels, before making final decisions and filling up the dreaded UCAS form.

It's a lot of pressure. Because so many young people now opt to go to University, competition for places is fierce - if you want to get onto a popular course at a respected university, you will probably be expected to get three As at A2 - a big ask in anybody's money. Most universities do not do interviews any more, so the students are judged purely on their grades and on their Personal Statements.

My thoughts and prayers are with my daughter in this time of waiting, and with all her fellow students, whose lives are going to be fundamentally shaped by what happens in the next few months.
May they survive with their self-esteem intact, and may they find a course they will find fulfilling and exciting.