On Nostalgia-

    Our connection to our past is something that we have always tried to reconcile with. This connection is really something that we want to have, not something that comes naturally. We view the past as our connection to objects. Our reliance on how these objects exist, as occupying our space and how they form the space around us, ultimately becomes the memories that we have.  Nostalgia becomes a piece of us in how these objects, that relate to our space, begin to shape us as individuals. Take as a sign of this the love of someone that we cared about. This person immediately becomes of the space around us, something that we relate to as an object. The idea that forms from this object is how our conception of the space around our bodies is, at that time. The bounds and limits of this space are ultimately perceived to be something that forms our memories, how we imagine the period of time we occupied. Our mind invariably perceives and thinks as a series of shapes, how an individual is around us effects our mind and the perception it has. So, to think of an individual or a place or even a period of time, ultimately we think of this as a part and series of shapes. The objects formed from these perceptions are things that we relate to as things forming the best congruence, or something like a consistent narrative.

    The relationship that we form with arguments, becomes how we form our relationship with this congruence. Arguments are of course a series of premises that justify a conclusion, they form our rationale for accepting and dealing with space. As we begin to form these arguments we have a relationship to their outcomes and rationales. For instance (to put it very simply), “I loved my days on the farm, I am having a memory of the farm, therefore I am having a good memory”, is how this argument works. We form arguments to justify nostalgia and the memories that they have. The days on the farm and the related elements formed my space. As this space formed and my memories were formed, an argument was made. This argument formed out of my relation to this space and formed my memories. It is too much to say that memories are in their very essence geometric shapes, but they form as something with a permeable and finite property that allows them to operate as shapes( the memories themselves, the images are still shapes). The only problem with such an argument is how we consider trauma that we cannot relate to.

                            -Mark Brinton