“Today is tomorrow’s nostalgia.”
- Zeena Schreck, Berlin-based artist
In New Orleans last weekend to visit my brother and his family, I had several moments in which I felt a connection with my younger self who, nearly thirty years ago, fell in love with that town and decided to go to college there from California. Beyond familiar, beloved sights, the sounds of the city took me back: the rumble and screeches of streetcars, the roar of jazz bands marching through the road, the whistle of steamboat calliopes and the vibrations of power-washing machines as French Quarter shop owners sprayed slate sidewalks each morning.
While sights often trigger memories, I tend to feel a deeper connection to the past through senses like sound and smell. In fact, the words nostril and nostalgia derive from the same root. Immersed in that environment, I was flooded with memories of the people and places of that time in my life, prompting me to reflect on who I was then, how much of that person is still a part of me and how I’ve changed. Artist Zeena Schreck says, “Today is tomorrow’s nostalgia,” reminding me to pay close attention to the wonders of the present, which will become my future self’s past.
How have sound and smell connected you to another time in your life, to a past version of yourself? How can you be more mindful of today’s sensory input?
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