Nostalgia can be a deceptively entertaining pursuit. It can be the Baby Boomer's substitute for video gaming--time consuming, entertaining, but nothing that puts dollars in the bank or results in anything gainful. One can be nostalgic en masse, as on a nostolgia facebook page, hearkening back to better days, palmier times, or youth when all was fresh and lively. The lure to nostalgia all around us, and it is easy to sink into reminiscence about the past, breaking the surface tension of time into the watery abyss of yesteryear. Not only is it a waste of time, though, but also a way or rehearsing outdated attitudes, or norms that no longer exist. Recognizing the lure of nostalgia and breaking away from the clutches of old memories we carry around is essential for progess. the allure of old memories offers little of actual substance. As youngsters we were warned of the dangers of TV and now that warning might best be expressed in a warning against oo much nostalgia.
Luis N Zumarraga
A psychiatrist in Panama City, Florida, recently died, I was very sorry to hear. I was an intimate part of the mental health community in Panama City from the mid-eighties to 2020. Attrition of old friends and mentors and acquaintances proceeds at an accelerated pace after 60, and the normalcy of the subjective experience, over time, if that is what it is, rather than a sort of numbing, is one of the strangest adaptive qualities of older age. The world's structures, rules, and mores stay roughly the same, but it is peopled with a new set of actors. In any case, I was very sorry to hear of Dr. Zumarraga's death. He was a kind and competent individual from the Philippines, and one aspect of our friendship was that my Dad had served in Manilla during the forties, during the conflagration of that city. At the same time, Dr. Zumaragga was a youngster there. I first met Dr. Zumarraga at the Life Management Center in 1986. He attended weekly meetings to provide psychiatric coverage....
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