This is an entry in the Saturday series of Timeless & Timely called “Off the Clock,” where we focus on words, a quirk of history or literature, or something just plain fun. Make sure you don’t miss a single issue.

Wax On

“…in a romantic chamber of the heart, in a nostalgic country of the mind, where it is always 1895.” — Vincent Starrett, 1933

Last week, we talked about the concept of a hiatus.

In keeping with the spirit of that, from my vacation perch, I reached into the archives and found a thing or two about nostalgia.

I hope you don’t mind the look back…at looking back.

It’s a two-parter, beginning with one that points out the diametric opposites of progress and nostalgia:

Timeless & Timely

Why Nostalgia Clouds Our Judgment

“We are all sensitive to the splendors of beginnings, to the rare quality of those moments when the present is freed from the past without as yet letting anything shine through of the future that sets it into motion.” — Marc Augé, 2004 Nostalgia is something of a false prophet…

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2 years ago · 2 likes · Scott Monty

And then it follows with the acknowledgment that not only do institutions and edifices change over time, but so do we:

Timeless & Timely

You Can Never Go Back

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it is not the same river and he is not the same man.” — Heraclitus, c. 500 BC Do you remember that gigantic hill you once sledded down as a kid? When the snow was so deep, the sled so fast, and the hill so steep wh…

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2 years ago · 3 likes · 1 comment · Scott Monty

And as we pause to consider nostalgia, here’s one final farewell: Robert Morse, a two-time Tony-winner who played Bert Cooper in Mad Men, passed away this week. That show was both nostalgic and an eye-opener to the realities of the time.

As Cooper died in his sleep watching the Apollo moon landing in 1969, he dreamed he was performing this final number:

Whether you wax nostalgic or embrace the realities of the present, enjoy yourself.

And keep pushing ever forward.

Thanks, and I’ll see you on the internet.