I’ve always been an old-fashioned person who just can’t forget the quality of the past. Sometimes I experience the so-called “last song syndrome” with songs that have been released 2 decades ago. I appreciate the lesser-in-quality but better-in-storytelling anime back then more than the 12-episode deals they do today that have been crippled by the ever-shrinking modern human attention span. Even when I listen to electronic music, there’s just something about tracks created from 2000-2010 that had a unique feel in them, that it feels almost as if the lower quality of audio from the past compared to today was instrumental in immortalizing a feeling that we desperately attempt to recreate in today’s music.
I was raised up by a family that was still rich when I was young but in the end became impoverished once my younger brother and I grew older, mainly because of failed businesses and the physical disability that ultimately made my father decide to leave behind being a well-earning seaman for good. As a result, I had to be content with secondhand stuff that I would occasionally receive from my parents back then while I was growing up. Thankfully, my clothes, toys, and other personal belongings were being replaced and added to when my family had extra income. In the long run, however, part of the frugality observed by my family included my parents handing over to me the things that they once used, believing that as long as we will take good care of them, the usefulness of these things remained intact.
Take for example my first ever cellphone. When I was in first year high school, the need for me to have a means of communication with my parents available to me at all times simply could not be ignored any longer. So my parents handed me a gold-colored phone with Gucci logos at the back. If my memory serves me right, it was once in the possession of my uncle, and my mother tucked it away for safe keeping after it was replaced by my uncle with another phone. The same thing happened when it had to be replaced during third year high school. My mother passed down to me her red Nokia phone that she had owned since 2002 or so. This particular phone’s ability to withstand damage was no joke. It had gone through things that would easily destroy today’s smartphones, such as falling into flood water, getting caught in the brakes of my bike, accidentally being dropped to the floor countless times, and many more that I would laugh at to this day.
It broke just recently because of software issues (nope, still not hardware defects, Hahaha), but with the 16 years of usefulness it had served my family when it was still in good working condition, I couldn’t help but smile at how reliable it was and that it finally got the rest it deserves. “Finding a replacement on par with it would be hard”, I thought to myself. The next thing I knew, I went through my stash of potentially useful stuff in my dorm, and voila! I found a cellphone (see picture above) that was as handy, but smaller and far more ancient than my two previous phones. It was originally owned by one of my father’s friends, but he let me have it in case of emergencies. I currently have a smartphone in my dorm that broke because of overheating and software issues, but even that lingering liability of a gadget couldn’t take away the relief I felt from finding a wonderful replacement for my previous phone so quickly.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that I constantly long for the intangible things in the past that is nowhere to be found in today’s world. I’d rather live in a small apartment even if my needs were barely met, than live in a mansion full of today’s latest luxuries and technology where everything I need is at abundance. The simplicity in living that had been incorporated in me from birth would be the easiest thing to point at when asked why I’m like this. As a Christian, however, I believe this is a product of God’s desire to implant in us the thinking that it is His original Word that we must find and believe in.
When I look around the world today in the religious sense, many foolish inventions and false teachings have appeared, and sadly the true teachings of God were hidden from people who are genuinely seeking God. Wrong translations of the Bible and even the manuscripts came about because of the human error and evil intentions of some translators. It’s been roughly two thousand years since the original and true teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ, while he was in the flesh, first graced the ears of man. Perhaps this is why I feel comfort in immersing myself in things of the past, because they simply cannot be replaced. At the end of the day, I realize that my longing for the past is ultimately a side effect of my longing to know of the true teachings of God which is intertwined with the past.
Thanks for reading! More to come.
Take care,
Virtual Self
