Emergency nostalgia. Boost memories. Thinking back to things that made sense in order to escape the turbulent moment of the present. Sometimes one of your own actual memories of easier times. Or rather, times that seem a lot easier in hindsight. Other times, you think of the concept of easier times. A small, newly opened cafe in the eighties, and what song the jukebox plays first? An old couple’s tiny house in a world waiting for the Y2K bug to hit, while they just sit there with loving stares since they barely have a working television and couldn’t be bothered by failing technology? An editorial office of a video gaming magazine in a time when things like that actually made money, and the people working there effectively had increased their worry less youth by a few years?
Maybe you have nostalgia for a time when nostalgia could still make you feel as intently as you used to? When a fleeting thought could put you in a state of awe.
Nostalgia is like holding a cinnamon roll in your hands, just smelling it. Take a bite, and the feeling is gone. But that lingering, dreamy smell is what keeps you going.