Why does getting older produce more emotion?

I don't know the answer. The older i get the more emotional i become. I think it's because i miss times gone buy when life was simpler and that i have lost many friends and family.

I'm only in my early 20s, but I feel the difference from only 3-4 years ago myself. A song, smell, or shadow can bring back a memory and feeling and the emotion that goes with it. 

I was always fairly stoic, but that has changed a lot. I hope it doesn't continue on the same trajectory, or I'll be a wreck by 35!

"Why does getting older produce more emotion?"

    I don't think it does. As we age we learn more about how things work so we use logic and experience more than emotion. .DaveB

I don't know the answer either, but it does.  Like Andrew B. said, any sort of thing can trigger a memory or an old feeling.  It just happens.

George

For those who have never been to Montana, the Big Sky state, make the trip. You can experience snow in July, the winters have to be long.  It takes the Park Service a month and a half to remove the snow from the "Going to the Sun Road", Glacier National.  I found the drive from Missoula to Glacier National just as exciting as the park.  My emotions are telling me I just can't wait to get back.  Recently corresponded with a forum member who moved to Kalispell, MT. 

It was James J. Hill's vision, Great Northern Railroad, about building the railroad and the people would follow.

On my hike to Granite Park Chalet, Glacier National, July 2015.

 East Glacier Rail station. Amtrak stops here. 

If I was from Whitefish, I would also be longing to be back there.  Nice find WB!

I think this is the biggest reason. We have a greater appreciation than the young do for how short life really is, and how quickly each precious stage of our lives and those of our children and grandchildren passes. I find myself constantly advising my employees with young children to take advantage of each minute they can to share quality time with their kids while they are young, and never think twice about taking time off to join them on a class trip, watch a school play or even just come in late in order to take photos of them getting on the bus on their first day. You feel far differently about so many things when the better part of your life is behind you than when it is ahead of you. 

Also, the older we get, the more seemingly inconsequential things we have around because they're associated with someone we loved or someone really neat who brushed by our lives. I've tried to explain to Gabe why some of them are around and why running into them makes me happy.

Why would an old B&O milk carton make me smile? It was a gift from someone who liked a piece I'd written years ago. That tiny metal basket? Favor from dear friends' fiftieth anniversary party. Train Christmas ornament? The last Christmas runs at Sugarcreek.  Small things, yes, but the memories aren't. Even people who don't hold onto physical objects keep pictures as long as they can just to remember that big friendly orange cat who left at least fifty years too soon or that tree that didn't stand forever, but should have.

Every year, if we're lucky, we meet more people who add something to us. We can only hope to add to them as well.

--Becky

I guess I'm not that sure that growing older does necessarily imply more emotion.  I'm sure this is true for a number of people but I can think of many people I've known who were old and who evinced little or no emotion about anything at all. 

  As for needing emotion to write poetry - perhaps - but it is also true many writiers have chosen to use the poetic form because they though that medium did a far better job of conveying their thoughts on a subject than they could convey with straight composition.  One such poem in this vein that comes readily to mind is Belloc's "The Modern Traveller"

Wow... What a beautiful western Mountain town.  Looks like a scene out of a downtown movie set.  My wife and I have often talked about driving through Montana as part of a Glacier National Park vacation.  Might need to include Whitefish as a stop along the way.  

David

In remembering it always seems a lot better than it actually was.

I agree with the previous responses, as a baby boomer born in September 1949 into a blue collar family as were my childhood friends, we received few toys and made our own toys from scrap lumber even a soap box racer we used our imaginations. My parents especially my father stressed the importance of a college education, I received an engineering degree attending evening classes and working full time as a draftsman paying my own way. This type of education showed the utility of the engineering courses and the incentive to study hard since I was financing my own education. I retired after long career as a mechanical engineer and participate in career days for high school students presenting engineering as a career, when discussing this career with these students, I stress that the basis of engineering is mathematics and how they need a solid basis and understanding of high school math if they are going to study engineering.

I use the analogy of building a house, the footing and foundation walls are critical in supporting the house, if one does not understand the basics of algebra, plane geometry, trigonometry and pre calculus taught at the high school level understanding calculus, differential equations or higher advanced math courses can be and most likely wll be an issue. 

Doing these high school career days and interviewing a number of candidates for engineering positions at my employers there immediate self gradification is what salary they will receive and working eight hours a day or 40 hours per week. Experience/job ethics and responsibilies are on the back burner, when you explain that these are salary positions and job assignents are to be correctly and on time and that occasional overtime as required is expected you receive a dirty look when I started my career over forty years ago this type of behavior would get you terminated on the spot, not today,

the old foggey engineers that understood job responsibilities, did board work on a drafting table, started with slide rule then calculators and solved engineering design calculations with college text books using pencil and paper are over, glad I am an old foggey.

Ay, God.

We're running out of time !

So many trains, so little time 

I get more emotional because we get burned out on all the BS encountered over the years and just start drawing a firmer line in the scenery.

I find today's "generations" short-sighted, arrogant, ignorant, and rude, and I get upset and emotional over that ... in general.  I know there are a lot of great kids out there, but I do with they would learn how to make change at McDonalds when the computer is down, learn to write letters, and most of all, quit thinking we done and over the hill, out of date, just because we are over 60 and don't text.

But that's the bad kind of emotional, not the getting misty-eyed kind ...

Montana should rename there state slogan from Big sky country to Gods country.

Its a pilgrimage people should take at least once in their lives... Lots of beauty and lots of history still frozen in time...

Nice pics J Daddy. Where in Montana is that located?

Thanks,

Bob

Sounds like you've been jaded by some bad experiences. Similar complaints (not the technology ones, but the others) have been written and espoused through the last century and a half (and probably before, but my reading is typically post-Civil War and on).

Possibly related to our experience...........  but since this is a train forum,  my trains really don't show much emotion.   A bit of smoke as it blows it's stack so to speak, that's it.

J Daddy!....Where is this corner structure in Montana????  I'll bet it was the town bank, right?

Andre Garcia (River Leaf Models)...  I want this building for my layout!!!!  You need to know the what the other sides look like, probably......right?  Time to take a vacation trip to Montana!!!!   Or......is there a forumite in the area of this gorgeous structure that could send more photos of the building to Andre?????

(Drool....slobber.....whimper....!)

Holy moly.....this has "Classic" written all over it!!

Pleeeeeeeese?

KD

P.S....Sorry to hijack this post with this response!  I'll get it back on track below.....

Bob, these are only a few places I visited over 10 years ago....

first is the Comet mine near Boulder Montana... a Ghost town visible today... here is a drone video of it:

https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/s...la&hsimp=yhs-004

Next is the last trestle before Mullan tunnel. It is part of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Drove this stretch from Helena to Garrison... simply a fantastic drive... take Austin rd up through the pass... simply breath taking.

Next is Pony Mt. Partial ghost town. cool place. its south of Three Forks MT- Another Northern pacific area where the high line and low line met.

The last one is a cool old mining town called Marysville. just NW of Helena. Again the NP had a branch line on a switchback to reach a very large gold mine there until the early 20's.

Another fantastic place to visit that you will never forget is Butte Montana... And as the locals jokingly say a town with the useless use of an "E"

And one of the really cool gems that has been lost in time is Lombard. Near Tostan Dam. No one building remains, the canyon will leave you speechless.

This is only scratching the surface. I did not even get a chance to walk the Milwaulkee main line out of Helena to Butt. See the GN railroad, or the highway to the sun... I did see Homestake Pass (now abandoned), Yellowstone, and Livingston shops of the NP...

OK.....as for the original posit.....

I'm finding that it's true....but I have no idea why.  I'm not a professional Psych-nerd.

But here's what I can say from my own experience about emotion and aging....

The first time I can ever remember Dad tearing up...big time...was the last time I had driven down to D.C. to visit the folks.  I had lived/worked in Michigan at that time for 17 years.  I had ruts in the road, so to speak, between our home and the folks', so it wasn't that this visit was long overdue or that unusual.  But Dad gripped the car door, literally crying, as he said good-bye.  The 11-hour drive back home was something else as I thought about it. 

A couple months later I got a call...Dad had a heart attack.  Not his first, but perhaps a more serious situation.  I flew home.  He was in a coma.  Two days later gone. 

So......did he know?  Is this something we 'know' or feel as we get older???

As for myself, I find it much easier to be affected by certain movies....Sleepless in Seattle and You've got Mail! ...are two of them.  Must've seen them a half dozen times each.  Good grief....why then do I keep tearing up at the end?????   Maybe it was the ugly divorce (24 years, 11 months of marriage, +4 years of court sessions to conclude).  Maybe it was an adopted son who ran away from home, never finishing school, never to be heard from again....but 'seen', doing well, by local friends.  Maybe it was then finding the true love of my life in my current wife, who shares in this great hobby.  Maybe it's that every time I see/touch Dad's 366W train or the trains of my youth, or hear about the restoration of N&W's 611 which was the last fan trip Dad and I took together when it was 'retired' in 1959 and recall the cornfield fiasco Dad and his camera had as that behemoth came charging down the tracks towards us (I now know how...and from whom...Ralphie learned 'blue language')....the eyes get wet.

They didn't years ago.  Now they do.

Dunno.

But, no doubt, we're older each day. 

Enjoy it while we're here.....eh what?

Run trains.  Go to York.  Keep busy.  Visit friends/family.  Thank God.

KD

Or as someone else once said...

None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm - Henry David Thoreau

Mike CT, you were a little too late.  Some years ago the wife and I hit Glacier within a few days after the Going to the Sun Road was reopened.  Melting snow walls on the side of the road, and fields of flowers on hillsides where snow was already gone.  Unforgettable!

We went again in the fall of 2013, just before that road closed.  Much less spectacular.

It is indeed a sad comentary that Al Sherry made so long ago now......."Be glad you did what you did, saw what you saw......you could have been born yesterday".  And that goes well with another......"What you have today will always be tempered by what you lost in order to gain it".   I get emotional, if that's what you want to call it , because I remember the past, and in so many cases, what it cost to get it.

J Daddy great pictures.  And you still haven't revealed where that corner bank is located.

They say that after NFL quarterbacks have played for a while,  the game slows down for them and they are much more successful at it.

Your time span relationship is interesting in that, when you are 10 years old, 1 year is 10% of your life.  But when you are 20, its only 5%.  And at 50 it is only 2%.

I think as I get older, my life is still going the same speed (I am still working 40+ a week), but the whole experience has slowed down somewhat for me.  You learn what things to ignore and what things to notice/observe/take in/cherish.   Spending a little extra time with my wife or grandson is more important now than some sports game on TV.  Its like you are quicker at sorting out what is important and focusing on that. 

Of course, trains would be at the top of the list

Hold on a minute, I need to check myself and make sure that I just wrote this.

I think as you get older you have trouble tolerating foolish people and their remarks, which creates emotion.

I know myself I don't have television, I don't read newspapers, and I only like Forums that have some kind of moderation which is why I'm only on two, one in the US and one in the UK.

I enjoy my large family and friends and still do long distance Bushwalking and my trains, work out at the Gym three times a week when I'm home. I just eliminate as much aggravation out of my life as possible and find it's great to be old!

I don't think I'm anything special, never have, their are lots of people like me that are happy and contented you just have to work on it nothing comes easy.

Photo: Just back from a walk in the bush lots of rain!

Roo. 

As you drive north from Missoula to Kalispell and Glacier, eventually you have a choice

west side or east side of Flathead lake.   I did the east side of the lake this trip. The water is crystal clear. There is the North fork, South fork, and Middle fork of the Flathead River that feed the lake.  Got to love all that big sky blue. 

Emotion. It has been several years since my first visit to Montana, a late evening flight into Missoula, a small four gate airport. Off the gate, into the terminal open space you are greeted by a large standing grizzly bear. We purchased 2 cans of bear mace, myself and Sweetheart, son-in-law, Vern, and my daughter Patty.  We never really did get Patty's emotion level back down to normal. Two days later we saw a real bear at Glacier.

Missoula, MT has a rail yard, Montana Rail Link and BNSF.  There is a covered walking bridge over the yard.  You could take pictures all day.

It has to do with things you remember .I remember being in school by the scl tracks.On the other side of the tracks was a rock pit.The was a siding with hoppers for the rocks.The local train would come and pick them up.Or to drop a few cars off.I still see the train back up to pick the cars up.All the while ringing its bell.I can also rember the teacher becoming upset with me.For looking at the train.I wished  she would not get so upset it was not any thing personal.

This is a fantastic topic because intentionally or otherwise it cuts to the heart of Model Railroading.

I believe that much of what is being described as “Being emotional” is really a matter of being Nostalgic.

Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, usually for a time or place with happy inter-personal experiences. The word nostalgia comes from the Greek words (nóstos), meaning "homecoming", and (álgos), meaning "pain or ache".  Modern studies have actually found regular feelings of Nostalgia to be a healthy thing. So why is this a highly relevant OGR topic?

IMHO, it’s because Nostalgia is the active ingredient in Model Railroading. Without it Model Railroading would be like sugar-free chocolate, decaffeinated coffee and alcohol-free Beer.

 Touch and Smell are known to be highly effective triggers for Nostalgia. Just pickup that Hudson and smell the smoke and you are transformed back to a time and place where you were safe and loved. Add in a dose of Christmas Nostalgia and it starts to explain the huge percentage of Christmas Trains sold every year.

Nostalgia can be a powerful emotion. Personally, I like it! So, Fear Not, fellow emotional Model Railroaders. Nostalgia is normal and a sign of good mental health. Embrace it!

Emile

Glad to know it isn't just me getting softer as I get older.

I'm in my mid-40s, but I see a huge difference between the person I am now, v/s the one I was in my 20s, in that regard.

I think it has to do with being aware of your own mortality and having enough life behind you to see the things that have come and gone, remembering how they were but long gone now. That, and people who are long gone, too.

Used to have a very hard heart and very little bugged me much. But the older I get, the easier I get rattled about some things and get nervous about stuff I never would have thought twice about. "Pain is weakness leaving the body" the Army used to tell me, Now I know it simply hurts, and nothing more. But at least you know when you're older that nothing lasts forever, and that includes the bad things (for the most part, anyway). So you're more able to endure stuff and much of it won't last forever and you can see that.

But yeah, I can drop a tear now over something I would have laughed at when I was younger. For example, I went to Space Camp for the first time as an adult (in 2012, I was 42 at the time), something I so badly wanted to do as a kid but my folks never had the money for me to go (nor inclination to send me that far, alone). Exactly 30 years had passed since I first heard of the place and I finally got to go. It was worth the wait, totally (I have gone back twice since then and will be going next year, likely). I never could have been an astronaut as I had a kidney stone as an ROTC cadet in my 20s, which automatically disqualifies anyone for the program but it was something I had always wanted to do. But that first time at Camp, I really felt like I'd been there and done that.

As I drove away (heading to Florida to link up with my wife so we could start a cross-country road trip back home to the Pacific NW), I actually had to pull over on the side of the road as I was crying like a kid. It took me a while to realize the emotions of getting to finally do something I'd so badly wanted to do for most of my life was overwhelming.

I find myself crying at funerals, now. That never happened before, as when it was someone I really loved, I could hold it in until later on when I was not in public. No more.

For a while, I thought I was getting weaker. I don't see it that way; I now think I'm finally in touch with the man I really am, and not so much focused on how I appear to others. The older I get, the less I care what other think.