Nostalgia and happiness

Boy the way Glenn Miller played, Archie. Or Steve, for members of my own cohort with less refined musical taste. 

...experimenters induced nostalgia by playing hit songs from the past for some people and letting them read lyrics to their favorite songs. Afterward, these people were more likely than a control group to say that they felt “loved” and that “life is worth living.

Then the researchers tested the effect in the other direction by trying to induce existential angst. They subjected some people to an essay by a supposed Oxford philosopher who wrote that life is meaningless because any single person’s contribution to the world is “paltry, pathetic and pointless.” Readers of the essay became more likely to nostalgize, presumably to ward off Sartrean despair.

Moreover, when some people were induced to nostalgia before reading the bleak essay, they were less likely to be convinced by it. The brief stroll down memory lane apparently made life seem worthwhile, at least to the English students in that experiment. (Whether it would work with gloomy French intellectuals remains to be determined.)

“Nostalgia serves a crucial existential function,” Dr. Routledge says. “It brings to mind cherished experiences that assure us we are valued people who have meaningful lives. Some of our research shows that people who regularly engage in nostalgia are better at coping with concerns about death. 

But isn't that just happiness, at least in an Epicurean sense? One interesting reader comment says no: " There's too much of an awareness of how fleeting these moments will be. A longing to hold onto them -- to can them for winter, if only it were possible. It's more like sorrow than happiness. I call it the Good Sadness."

Good sadness will be good enough for some. I think we can do better.

What Is Nostalgia Good For? Quite a Bit, Research Shows - NYTimes.com