What is the opposite of nostalgia? I don't have the word for it. Maybe you do, in which case please tell me.

If nostalgia is the pleasant feeling of revisiting the past then this is a painful sense of regret. Even worse, it includes apprehension for the future. It is a sense of something left undone and of knowing that it is now too late to do anything about it. It includes the fear that the full consequences or failure have not yet arrived.

It is the feeling that the indifferent student has on the morning of final exams, wishing that more time had been spent studying and less time goofing off. It is also a sense we may have when a loved one has just died. What else could we have said or done to show that we did care? And what can we possibly do now? All we have is the nausea and vertigo as the floor seems ready to give way.

What difference can this feeling make to us? Why is it there, except to torment us? How can it ever help to undo our neglect, our habits of self-centeredness and distraction?

The feeling can make us aware of the possibility of connection, and what it is that we care about in the world around us. If it prompts us to reach out for help and for support from those around us, then it has shown us something. It is never too late.