Everyday Canvas

C'est la Vie!

Prompt:
Let this quote inspire your writing: “We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.” ― Anais Nin

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There is such a thing as today's writing and writing that comes from that of retro-inspection. I think they call this retrospection, but retrospection, as a word, sort of bypasses or makes light of the meaning of the word inspection.

Without our past experiences, we wouldn't be who we are at the present. That is a given. In the same vein, if we are looking at the past to taste it again, I believe we do this to rejoice in it. Some of the most elegant and haunting writings attest to that.

Yet, there is that element of the past that has to do with mourning and re-living what was so sad. From my readings, I've come to understand that most writers like to mourn. More so, they mourn a loss. Most anyone who writes must have at least dealt with theme of loss once in a while, yours truly included. We writers love to live inside a wave of dread, sometimes in sheep's clothing. Why, I ask, is it because dread is easier to write about or is it because it gets more attention?

Some writers do re-taste personal tragedies, reframe things, people, or events, and then explore inside their reframed stuff. I wonder if there is any logic to these personal "mythologies." Not that, I haven't done it either. Maybe we do like "loss" better than "happy sunshine" or maybe writing about loss comes easier for most of us.

The biggest truth about loss is that it is lonely. It can also be personal, profound, and even terrible, deadly, and dreadful. For those reasons, this rehashing of "loss," exploring the insides of it, may have some advantage as it may light the way for or be a comfort to others who will lose or has lost someone or something dear to them. Recently, Joan Didion's “The Year of Magical Thinking” was a comfort to me as I found out that she felt, like me, her husband, who had recently died, would come back to use "his things" and she wouldn't give them away for a long time. With this and other incidents and feelings she put in words were familiar and comforting and I didn't feel as alone. No wonder they say misery loves company!

People also write about the past to remember happy experiences, such as childhood antics. This may be because reminding oneself of pleasant memories can bring back positive feelings tied to an original happy experience. This recall of happier times is a ploy therapists use on depressed people to improve their mood. As such, remembering positive autobiographical memories is intrinsically valuable for most of us. This must be why some of us recall the past by cutting out the unpleasant parts of it. In some instances, such as after a loss, capitalizing on the positive emotions can make us feel better while we reminisce about happy memories.

Thus, possibly, writing in itself may be considered as tasting life twice since life is composed of opposites or poles, such as bitter and sweet, ugly and beautiful, light and dark, and easy and difficult. That must be why, at times, when I am at a loss for words, I say, C'est la vie!



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