Shadows of the Past
Remembering the past: do you find it sad or satisfying to look backward? You’re probably thinking, “Obviously, that depends on what’s being remembered -happy or sad times”. But is that the only view? Is there a way in which memory itself -the very FACT of the past- always shadows life in the present? Yes the past shadows life in the present, only the thought of the past itself can affect people’s present. Some people tend to get hold of the past, seize upon experiences, these people have trouble moving on. As we get closer to the end of the year, the idea of leaving school and finding independence is becoming a reality. I for once find the past sad, even though most of it was great, I cannot imagine leaving people who made me behind. I cannot imagine going through life with different people than those I know and those who know me. Past affects the present because there are always things we wished we have done different, or events we would like to go through again. Unfortunately, the past has two main purposes, to learn from mistakes we have already done and avoid to do them again, and to remember beautiful experiences, feeling blessed we had the opportunity to live them. Sadly, as the present becomes the past, we leave people behind, we move a step closer to our true destiny, we head to different experiences, overcome other obstacles, and most importantly remember that all we did before, was for one reason only THE FUTURE.
"It is not that I am afraid of the future, I am just afraid to go through it without them"
How can tears be “idle” -can you cry without knowing why? Yes, in my opinion human beings often find themselves in a position were they can no longer control their emotions, or most importantly do not know where these come from. Particularly when we are going through adolescence and hormones are all over the place, we can suddenly find ourselves notably happy or burst into tears without knowing why, after all we are humans and not everything can be explained. Some may say that idle tears are wasted tears, but tears are the expression of emotions, whenever we cry we are expressing from pride, to regret. Sometimes we just ignore the reason, but anything that shows an emotion is never idle.
What do you think the “divine despair” is in line 2? Could you relate it to Adam and Eve’s fall in Genesis -would that story explain the speaker’s existential sadness? To me the divine despair is indeed the human mistake. We write our own destiny, we take our own decisions and face our own consequences. The Genesis is the brutal story of our so believed reality. Eve was trapped between her humanly weak desire and her so called expectations. She commits the fatal sin, which is believed to affected us. The story explains the speaker’s anguish because we sometimes face obstacles were we often take the wrong decisions and end out doing evil things. Luckily we learn from life to fight to get to our ultimate destiny which is eternal life. The author portrays guilt as it is trapped in our mind.
Does the contradiction in the phrase “Death in Life” (line 20) make sense to you? Explain. What is your response to this line? Have you ever felt this way? Death in Life actually makes sense, it means to have no goals, no purpose in life, live because you were brought to the world for no apparent reason. People who are death in life are empty, shallow and selfish. They are just a substance occupying valuable places in earth. We all have somehow experience death in life, but not all of us manage to defeat that state. We experience this when we feel left behind, alone, when we feel that we do not belong somewhere. Those who do not overcome it and spent the rest of their life just wondering around, with no purpose on earth whatsoever are the weak ones, are those who believe their existence is in vane. We were all brought to life for a reason that goes beyond our knowledge, but just knowing we have a reason to be alive is more than enough encouragement to find out that reason and fulfill it.
