10 Reasons to Look Back

1. On a walk up a hill we sometimes are so intent on the uphill struggle we forget to look back at the view.
2. Learn from the past. Prepare for the future. Live for the present. (Kolb's learning cycle is constant reflection in and on action, in the present and the past to transfer learning to the present again).
3. The past does not exist unless hard wired or hard copy. (Knowledge is only attained by reinforcement and repetition of items in the short term memory so they can transfer for longer storage in long term memory).
4. On some paths the type of pitfall will be similar, so seeing what's gone before helps avoid the next. Mud follows mud, rabbit burrows follow rabbit burrows and in a field of marsh grass you might think to wear wellingtons.
5. If you come off the path sometimes its good to go back to find your way again.
6. The past can be like a happy pill, to be able to recall a time you felt happy or at peace can create those feelings as if they were true.
7. Returning to the past is like taking a break on your journey to unpack your baggage, sort it out and lighten the load or make it more comfortable for the journey ahead.
8. Catharsis is wringing out the dish rag to dry out to be used again.
9. The past is a holiday spot - a good place to visit, not to stay or to use to avoid present or future reality.
10. The past is analogue in a digital world - like turning back a cassette tape with a pencil, you can turn it back but you won't always know where it stops or if it's the same quality as when you first experienced it and in time it will degenerate, won't snap back the way you want and eventually it may just be eaten up by the machine or you pull the tape out of the cassette and let it fly away in the wind. But until then you can play it over and over again even if the label's been lost and its lost its box.

Nostalgia: Turning Back Time

Retro is du jour. Vintage is trendy. Classic is cool.

Nothing can stop us wanting what we can't have. And the harder it is to get, sometimes the more we want it. From antiques to limited editions to the past.

However much we may want the past, time moves forward. We can have some of those feelings and familiarity with certain objects but they pass. They fit into the mental fabric that helps us negotiate the world and be better able to cope with the new, having learned from what's gone before. 

Nostalgia is fine if its an old record playing in the background of your life but if its up too loud or constantly tuning your life to its sound or changing the beat of your life to keep to its rhythm that's when scratches appear in the vinyl.

The T Shirt slogan connecting the pencil with the cassette is for people who remember them, but now its also for people who know what it means without remembering experiencing using a pencil to rewind or forward or return the tape of a cassette to its spools. We may be nostalgic about the past but we're not all going to go out and buy a cassette player and tapes just so we can turn back the spools with a pencil like time. Most of us will just buy the TShirt or post a picture online. Sometimes, it is the thought that counts.