OK, I need your help. I need a word. It must exist. Please help.
What's the word to describe the nostalgia one feels for the loss of something that is not yet lost?
Like, the other day, I was watching Jesus Christ Superstar with Geoff because I love it and he has never seen it and I know every song. When all of those singing hippies were jumping back into the bus at the end of the movie, I needed the word then, the word to describe the nostalgia I felt for the loss of my youth - a specific youth emblemized in that movie - one that I never had to lose and a more general youth that I have not yet lost. What is this called?!
Another example:
I get this same feeling when I am intensely happy - it can be as simple as the feeling of eating a really delicious bowl of ice cream and reflecting on its deliciousness even as I am savoring the first bite. It is the feeling I get embarking on the first day of a wonderful, week-long vacation and experiencing each moment as if I were looking back on it sentimentally. Or, it can be as big as the feeling I get when Geoff and I are together and we are so happy and I am nostalgic for that time that we are experiencing even at that very moment.
OK, ok. Maybe you linguaphiles can help me find the right word. Right now, though, Geoff wants me to join him on the couch so he can rub my feet. There I go, needing that word again....
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3 comments:
emotionally reflecting on ice cream in such a way that one looks fwd to the sense memory of how good the bowl will have been sounds too intense for me.
as for the other stuff, just make up a word. perhaps nostalja vu?
I'm pretty sure the word is "wistful" -- I don't believe it constrains yearning for something to be either something in the past or future so it should include present feelings as well.
See:http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/wistful
Ok, so I'm really late with the comment... perhaps it will be lost in cyber-blog-land... but I had to contribute to this one... Finally someone who has a similar nostalgia/wistful sentiment which has heretofore been underappreciated by others! I get a very similar feeling... yes, even in the setting of a delicious ice cream indulgence, or savoring the PERFECT moment snuggling in front of the fire with Jay with the Christmas tree lights in the background and sweet sounds of bing crosby crooning White Christmas over the in-house audio... it's like that moment is so wonderful that you're immediately kind of sad that it will be over too soon, and a bit frantic about trying to hold on to it, or extract maximal enjoyment out of it before it's too late! WHAT IS THAT?!?!?!?!
Another similar feeling that no one else really seems to "get" is that strangely sad (or is it wistful?) feeling when I see things like really old people holding hands, or demented patients grinning over a bowl of green jello, or even my 4 month old happily playing by herself when I'm feeling bad about leaving her in her swing so I can get things done. Sort of combination between heart-warming and sadness because of the Blissful Unawareness. Hmmmmm. Ok now that I've openly declared the strange interworkings of my brain, better sink back into anonymity, and be thankful that i'm 3 months behind on reading your blog :-)
lauren
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