1. "How many times have you heard someone say they’ve gone back home and it’s changed or it’s gone? I mean, people weep over this. Is it sadness or is it nostalgia?"
This was the first quote that really stood out to me. This comment by Melissa Holbrook Pierson is what I think that she is trying to say in the first part of the book, A Place Called Home. She does not like the progess and change that is being made in her town and she makes it very clear in her writing. This comment, however, is very true. I know that my town is always changing, even if its just adding yet another pizza place to our ver small town. My grandmother owned a coin store in my town, but she had to sell a few years ago, and that store has been changed and bought out about 5 times since then. Everything is always changing, but is it always such a bad thing?
2. " If you really loved where you came from, if, in essence, you really loved yourself—because that’s what created you—how can you not want that to exist?"
This quote also makes a lot of sense, but what MHP doesn't understand is that just because the memorable places in your town are changing, doesn't mean that you have changed. Of course you would like things to stay the same, but those memories will always be with you, no matter what gets torn down or replaced. MHP's book is all about how she hates progress, but she just needs to realize that her memories aren't changing, and new memories can form with progress.
3. "These are the photographs, the albums, the history—my father was really good about keeping that kind of stuff, but now I can’t—he’s not alive anymore so I can’t go to him and say, 'Daddy, who was this?'"
This quote stood out to me because MHP has all of these memories of her past buried in her house, but still she is dwelling on the progress. She has the ability to share the memories of her past relative through these photos, but yet she still complains about the change. Does she not think that things have changed since 1882? Not everything can stay the exact same, and somethimes it's a good thing that it doesn't.
Is nostalgia such a bad thing? I don't think its a bad thing at all. I do believe that the past makes you who you are, but just because the past has changed doesn't mean you have. I am all about living in the present. If change is what needs to happen to make the town a better place, then thats fine with me. I have already made my memories, and i love to revisit them, but i am ready to make new memories with the progress that has been made in my life. I will never forget my past, but what's important right now is the present and making all new memories to last a lifetime.
I connected to what Abrie said about her town always changing and "adding yet another pizza place". In my town, there couldn't be more Dunkin' Donuts or a variation of an imitation Italian pizza joint to a town that really only needs one. In my opinion, nostalgia isn't a bad thing in small doses. If one keeps on holding on to the past isn't that just hurting that person because they can't grasp the present? I know that nostalgia can be good and it can be bad. I guess it just depends on the person.
ReplyDeleteBut on her reaction to the second quote, I agree on some level but not whole-heartedly. Progression is everything to the human race. No, I don't want the town to change my elementary school and build a new one but I understand it. I DO want it to remain the same but I know that we've aquired more children over the last decade and there needs to be something done about the overcrowding. I understand why Abrie's standpoint and her connection to it but I can also understand progression