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Items to fit into your overhead compartment |
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Carrion Luggage  Native to the Americas, the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) travels widely in search of sustenance. While usually foraging alone, it relies on other individuals of its species for companionship and mutual protection. Sometimes misunderstood, sometimes feared, sometimes shunned, it nevertheless performs an important role in the ecosystem. This scavenger bird is a marvel of efficiency. Rather than expend energy flapping its wings, it instead locates uplifting columns of air, and spirals within them in order to glide to greater heights. This behavior has been mistaken for opportunism, interpreted as if it is circling doomed terrestrial animals destined to be its next meal. In truth, the vulture takes advantage of these thermals to gain the altitude needed glide longer distances, flying not out of necessity, but for the joy of it. It also avoids the exertion necessary to capture live prey, preferring instead to feast upon that which is already dead. In this behavior, it resembles many humans. It is not what most of us would consider to be a pretty bird. While its habits are often off-putting, or even disgusting, to members of more fastidious species, the turkey vulture helps to keep the environment from being clogged with detritus. Hence its Latin binomial, which translates to English as "golden purifier." I rarely know where the winds will take me next, or what I might find there. The journey is the destination. |
| Here's a source I don't think I've referenced before: Greater Good. Ever since I saw the movie Hot Fuzz (three or four times), that phrase has filled me with a sense of unease. And when I hear it, I reflexively repeat it, intoned in a British Northern accent, or as close to it as a US Southerner can get. Five Ways Nostalgia Can Improve Your Well-Being  Some recent studies suggest that experiencing nostalgia about our past can make us happier and more resilient during times of stress. You know, used to be, nostalgia was considered a mental illness. Sigh... I miss those days. I often find myself nostalgic for days gone by—especially my young adulthood. Thinking about days when I could go backpacking with a friend on a moment’s notice or dance the night away at my wedding, without the constraints of child care or a limited energy supply, gives me a bittersweet feeling—a mixture of joy, sadness, and longing. Me? I've always had a limited energy supply, especially when it comes to group activities. And I've never had to deal with child care. Well, there was that one time my friend roped me into baby-sitting. I taught the kid how to make (and use) water balloons, and somehow never found myself in that situation again. Staying “stuck in the past” was often associated with being unable to adjust to new realities, like when soldiers were nostalgic for their faraway homes and experienced loneliness and dread. That may be an extreme example. While I've never been a soldier, I can understand how those emotions could happen, even without nostalgia. Not that long ago, some considered nostalgia to be a mental illness, akin to melancholy, which could lead to anxiety, depression, and sleep disorders. Yes, and I already made the joke about it up there. I just included this quote to support that the "mental illness" assertion was factual, unlike many of my jokes. Waltz's Second Rule: Never let the facts get in the way of a good joke. Or a bad one. Especially a bad one. But more recent findings on nostalgia suggest it can be good for us, increasing our well-being, making us feel connected to other people, and giving us a sense of continuity in our lives. Good. Let's drive another nail into the "living in the present moment" coffin. Rather than being a problem, nostalgia can help bring happiness and meaning to our lives. On second thought, happiness is overrated, and meaning is whatever we want it to be. Nostalgia makes us feel socially connected Nostalgia about our past often includes recalling important people in our lives—people who cared about us and made us feel like we belonged. Yeah, okay, but it can also highlight how you'll never see some of those people again. Seriously, though, the article links to some studies, which, full disclosure, I didn't read. Nostalgia helps us find meaning in life A sense of meaning in life involves knowing that your existence matters and that your life has coherence or purpose. It’s something we all strive for in one way or another. No, it's not. As one study found, nostalgia can increase your motivation to pursue important life goals, because it increases meaning—not just because it puts you in a better mood. Again, links to studies. Again, no clicky here. Nostalgia can make us happier Though it does seem to do just that—to boost our mood. Even though nostalgia is by definition a blend of positive and negative emotion, the positive tends to outweigh the negative, meaning we feel happier overall. I feel like the key words there are "can" and "tends to." Nostalgia puts us in touch with our authentic selves When thinking nostalgically about our past, we are the prime protagonists in our own life stories. I'm already the prime protagonist in my own life story. Perhaps for this reason, engaging in nostalgia can lead to personal growth. At least one study found that feeling nostalgia made people feel more positively about themselves, which, in turn, made them more open to experiencing new things, expanding their horizons, and being curious—all signs of psychological health. I'm still open to those things, nostalgia or not. But lately, what's been on my mind is: how long will that last, at this point? Nostalgia may help people who feel disillusioned or depressed Perhaps because of these potential benefits, people tend to engage in nostalgia when they are feeling down, lonely, or disillusioned. You know what helps me in those situations? Listening to really depressing music or watching really depressing movies. The article does go into some of the negatives: Of course, that doesn’t mean that nostalgia is always good or can’t have a downside. If nostalgia makes us spend too much time thinking about our past, it may prevent us from recognizing the joy in our lives right here and now. And, since we tend to engage in nostalgia when negative things occur, it could become an avoidance strategy that keeps us from dealing with present problems in more effective ways. Me, I'm not coming down hard on one side or the other. My feeling is that trying to squelch nostalgia, or any other emotion, simply on the basis of "I've heard it's bad to feel this way, so I won't feel this way" can't be good for you, but that's hardly scientific. I'll just point out that the "-algia" part of the word comes from a Greek root meaning "pain," and that the word apparently had the original sense of "homesickness," not a general longing for the past. The past, though, pain and all, is what made us who we are, so I can see why sometimes reflecting upon it can have positive outcomes. Let's just not lose ourselves in it. |
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