I’ve been consciously trying to seed some future nostalgia lately.
I’ve been watching a lot of older films with my kids. Some are movies I first saw when I was around their age, and I can still remember what it felt like to see them then.
Seeing a great film as a kid isn’t quite the same as discovering it as an adult. There’s a limited window to make watching these films together part of their childhood. I’m trying to use that window well!
I used to think of films and TV as just entertainment, something you do when you’re not doing something that matters more. But over the years I’ve come to realize that a really good film or a really good TV show shared with the people you love is one of the peak human experiences. 🏔️
So why not make time for it instead of just letting it happen randomly? Family Movie Night™ is a tradition in this house!
When older adults look back over their lives, a disproportionate number of their memories come from childhood and adolescence. Psychologists call this the reminiscence bump (related to the U-shaped curve of memory I mentioned in Logtime).
This pattern shows up with music, too. Songs we hear as teenagers have a weird ability to stay welded to us for decades. So I’ve been playing my kids music from all kinds of genres and eras. At first, I was doing most of the choosing. Now they’re requesting songs, exploring on their own, and showing me music I didn’t know about!
I love that.
It also makes me think more consciously about films, music, books, trips, little traditions, etc. What are the things that might become keys to whole rooms of memory 30 years from now?
Not that I want to turn childhood into some kind of memory-optimization program 😅
I have no idea what will stick. I’m just trying to get more shots on goal: sharing things I genuinely love, watching them together, talking about them afterward, revisiting favorites, building up shared references and stupid inside jokes.
And then maybe, decades from now, one of those old movies comes on, and for a moment they’re back here with us. 👨👩👦👦
🧭 This first appeared in Edition 660 of Liberty’s Highlights. New here? I made a page for that: Start Here.