Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Nostalgia

My highly sensitive, very verbal kid gave a very detailed description of what the feeling of nostalgia was like for him and I am embarrassed to say I never paid any attention to the "algia" part of the word meaning pain until he said something about it.

In his definition he described the pain and how it was different from physical pain in some ways but similar in others and I wish I could have recorded it because I can't remember all of what he said, but it was another example of how sensitive he really is and how he experiences life a little differently that most people. Is this part of SPD or overexcitabilities or just part of being different? I keep telling him he could be a good writer if he could manage to get some of this on paper, but I can't get him to write.

He started the nostalgia discussion when we were in the car with one of his friends who had just asked to borrow one of his games. He told the friend that he beat this game a long time ago but kept it only because it brought back good memories and then I guess he felt he needed to explain the word nostalgia to his friend and what it felt like for him and how he would feel if this game ended up broken or lost, and that he didn't like to let other people borrow games for this reason, but he would let his friend borrow it if he would promise to take good care of it.

He doesn't like to get rid of anything that he associates with good memories so we have a lot of his old toys and things in our shed and he likes to go out and look at all of it once in a while. This is one of the things we have in common.

Anyone else like this?

I've started paying DD's to give their old toys away. Months will go by and they'll start weeping over some stuffed animal they miss. I asked for no gifts on their birthday invitations because it's so hard for them to part with old toys, even when they have new ones. Thanks for pointing out the "algia" and pain connection.

There was a time when I could not throw away even old socks without making DS very, very upset. He had outgrown this problem, thankfully

Lori H - you and he might enjoy the book, Gossomer, by Lois Lowry. As for writing, perhaps blogging about his favorite internet sites, or a writting competition, or writing his own musical?

I miss TV character after the shows go off the air - golly I feel silly for admitting that. But Pearl S Buck's 'on creativity' really says it all.


Well, maybe I can be pleased that I'm sorta creative instead of 'truly'

Grinity

Pearl Buck should know - she is one of mhy favorite authors. And she was definitely gifted. Thanks for quoting her.

And yes, I mourned Dr. Mark Green for quite awhile. I still get sad when I think about all the time my daughter and I spent "in the neighborhood" with Mr. Rogers and "Mr. McFeeling" - my daughter's first name for him. I am so glad to hear someone say this.

He really liked Lois Lowry's book The Giver, so he might also like Gossomer. I'll have to look at that one.

I think my son needs to write a book similar to Vocabulary Cartoons just for fun. He is very good at coming up with humorous mnemonics to remember information that might ordinarily be boring. His excuse for not doing this is that he can't draw and it wouldn't be the same without illustrations. I told him he could do stick figures and that his dyspraxic drawings might make it even more humorous. I am already writing down a lot of what he says when we read together.

I always thought some of his sensitivity was a gift and it is definitely part of what makes him different from the average kid. He notices things that most people don't notice because of his sensitivity. He even notices things about other people that I don't notice. I could never lie to him because he senses when I am not being entirely truthful and he is very sensitive to my anxiety and other people's anxiety which I think is one reason he loves to make people laugh.

I sometimes get a painful case of nostalgia, but I feel like I need to keep telling my son of my memories of my mother and this is hard for me. The mother I knew lives only in the past. Although she is still alive physically, she is nothing like the mother I knew. The day she had surgery she was suddenly left with only some memories of the past and very little short term memory, about 30 seconds worth, so she could never learn another thing for the rest of her life even though learning was her passion. So in a way, it was like she had died. She was such a wonderful mom and my son was only 4 when this happened to her so I want to keep reminding him what she was like before the brain injury.

I keep a picture of her and my son at his 4th birthday party, when she was still very alive mentally. I can't put it away.

I also can't put away the picture of my son on his first day of Kindergarten, the day he read out loud and followed the instructions on the paper the teacher gave us, an instruction list that was written for the adults to read when we walked into the room. In the picture he was happy and smiling and so looking forward to going to school with other kids to learn. He was the only child at home and had not gone to preschool and he wanted to go to school with other kids like him. This was before we knew there were no other kids like him at the school. It was before we knew that the real focus would be on making him more like the other kids and making him color in the lines and that I would need to homeschool or put him in a private school that we couldn't afford. It was before I knew that smart kids were bullied for being smart or different and teachers ignored the problem.