Being too sentimental?

[Sherlock77]

I was walking through our local fairgrounds today... There is already one major demolition of a beloved 1950's arena to make way for a fancy new building, I have lots of memories associated with the building... I also walked by another area, a little corner really, a grassy area with some western style stores, a cosy little place to hang out away from the concrete when the big annual fair happens (not this year though), anyway... This area has been taken apart, although the logs are still intact, I'll miss it so much! Although maybe it's simply being re-located elsewhere on the grounds... I hope...

I don't like change, a big part of me loves history and I don't like seeing old buildings getting knocked down, yet I know that is inevitable at times... In some cases I have strong memories of a favourite place I miss because the building doesn't exist anymore, or even simply a business that closed down that I miss...

Yet I probably need to be more open to change, because life is change, buildings and businesses come and go... Sometimes there isn't a replacement of any sort, just the loss... But yet I do know there have been times where the replacement was as good, or even better than I thought, despite my fears... But when I first see the change my reaction becomes very sentimental, wondering why, feeling lost...

I don't know if this is autism thing, can anyone relate? And if only life could be a time warp that never changes...

 

[Greatshield17]

I get what you're feeling, there is some truth to your sentiments, a lot of modern art and especially architecture does tend to come from a, to put it somewhat bluntly uncreative mindset:

I'm not saying all modern art and architecture is bad by the way, (albeit, I personally think modern art is a bit better than modern architecture these days, for the most part) nor am I saying that all art from the past is good and we shouldn't try anything new; in fact, I mentioned my dream of starting an online Catholic art shop on another thread, and one of the things I'm hoping to accomplish is promoting the beauty and goodness of traditional Catholic art, while at the same time, adding new things that help make it even better. (One artist I'm thinking of in particular who does this well, is Cecillia Lawerence, known on DA is Theophilia, she works with Traditional Christian iconography, but adds a touch of realism to her works and it comes out really well: Theophilia - Professional, Traditional Artist | DeviantArt)

 

[OkRad]

I feel mixed. Often it's not even necessary. I have seen a lot of buildings "update," and they raise millions to do so and that half is just as empty or it ruins the ambience. I am also against the idea of just frenetic building, building, building. I would like to see tiny home building for the homeless, though. But that is something you almost never see. There are also building built just to host a dummy company and they sit there, empty. It's all so uneven. And you never know why they are doing it.

 

[Sherlock77]

I also think for me, it's a visual thing... I tend to navigate myself around a city, or anywhere by visual reminders, and for me buildings are part of that... Like today, I've walked by that corner thousands of times (the visual) without hardly even thinking, and to suddenly see the buildings gone was a jolt... I have since discovered that there will be a major re-development of that little corner, just hoping they move the buildings somewhere else... And if they don't? I guess they don't... I'm just glad I got one last photo of it a couple of months ago, not knowing it would be all gone... There are five more buildings to the left of "General Store", all gone... The "Meat Market" building is still there... It always offered nice shade from the heat of walking on concrete on a hot summer day...

 

[artful_aspie]

Good topic. Some things we hope to see around for a long time while others we cannot wait to see finished with. I hate those ugly statues of Queen Victoria that litter Commonwealth countries - awful person - pull them down & bury them. The Victorians are responsible for a lot of bad things as well as their development of the world. I have seen some beautiful heritage buildings demolished to make ways for ugly complexes. People complain, but nothing is done. Then of course, I live in a region that suffers floods, bush fires, & cyclones & they demolish everything without mercy. The last flood here in 2018 saw a number of people & half a billion animals drowned. The coastline of southern Queensland & the famous Byron Bay Beach has in the last couple of days just vanished under near cyclonic weather; I had some nice memories of that place. Life is a tenuous business & this world will one day be burnt to a cinder in a dying Star. Recently, I walked one of our local cemeteries & one does wonder about all those old neglected headstones, no sentimentality on show there. There is a tune well done by the Pet Shop Boys (who are my generation) called, 'This Used to be the Future' which talks about the legacy left to us through progress. Have a look on YouTube.

 

[Mia]

It's why I like old things, that I hold onto. They remind me of people I've known and places I've been. The last time I was in places I used to live in, they'd changed.

A woman in the area I grew up in cut down a several hundred years old healthy maple that I used to climb and play around. I asked her why, she said it blocked the sun in her front garden. I never spoke to her again I was so incensed. People shouldn't be allowed to cut down healthy trees of that age. The entire street was never the same again, when I looked down it, there was a big gaping void where that tree used to tower about the rest.

 

[Wolfsage]

Know that feeling well. A sense of losing something a piece of your history.

 

[Sherlock77]

...
A woman in the area I grew up in cut down a several hundred years old healthy maple that I used to climb and play around. I asked her why, she said it blocked the sun in her front garden. I never spoke to her again I was so incensed. People shouldn't be allowed to cut down healthy trees of that age. The entire street was never the same again, when I looked down it, there was a big gaping void where that tree used to tower about the rest.
...

That is unforgivable!

The balance between the old and the new... We probably all define it differently

 

[Aspychata]

l was so sad to find out that the beautiful tree in front of a house we sold was cut down. It really bothered me. It was a older tree. l experienced sadness. No respect for nature and gifts of nature anymore.

 

[SusanLR]

Material things can have emotional attachment.
It IS like a loss, so there is a certain type of grief.

I don't like change either.
If it weren't so much for commercial deals that are changed for the sake of making money from it,
sometimes change would be good.
But, it seems to me, changes are for the worse in most cases.
How to make something cheaper or not as well made in order to make more money.
Less for more in other words.

Quaint and nature are ignored in the race for profit.
That is a real shame.

If it is something we can't control, hold onto personal items that bring back the nostalgia of
the good feelings it brings.

 

[artful_aspie]

Aspies do not handle fast change. We need time to adjust. However, life has an inconvenient truth: It moves ever forward.