In response to my previous post about a trip down memory lane, Jon Callaghan, my partner at True Ventures (and also an investor in GigaOM) sent an email that gives the past, present and future a wonderful context. With his permission and a bit of editing, I am sharing the contents of that email with you:

Time is such a puzzling construct. In our minds and hearts the past is crystal clear with us each day. But it is so hard to reconcile the unforgiving truth of a changing physical world (both in our bodies and in the places of our past) with the nostalgic warmth that we all seem to have for times and people gone by. I guess the only reconciliation for the sadness and weird sense of loss for the past is the brightness and sense of possibility for the future. As we age, those ratios change, which makes it harder.

As we age, we get selective about the past, thus making it easier to be nostalgic about the past.