Post: #1

I believe it is the temporal nature of life which makes much of it so sweet.

I think of good friends I had in high school and college and the times we had. I remember one evening with one of my good friends, Bill. He and I left a party with other friends. We rode in the back of a pickup truck on a clear summer night down the beach, while a more sober friend drove us around. We hooted and hollered at the moon, making comments and telling each other jokes so funny, I thought I'd burst. Bill and I along with my other best friends had some great times that one summer. Times that, years now, still make me smile. By the end of the summer, I was thinking to myself that this is one great group of friends and it's only going to get better from here. 'We're going to have so many more nights and great times like this' I thought.

Only, we never did.

I went away to college and Bill went to work at a local hardware store and the others got married or moved off. I'd see some of them on and off as the years went by and we'd share some laughs here and there, but we never hung out like that anymore. I have, as I'm sure you do, countless such stories of times with good friends, good women and family. Times where you were looking forward to being with these people again. Times where you were hoping to get together and recreate that magic. Yet, that memorable day or small stretch of days was all that occurred. Now, it is relegated to your memory.

If this seems like idle reminiscing, it is in a sense. Yet, it is more than that. It's also thoughts on how 'nature's first green is gold' to quote Robert Frost. Those things, like youth, which are passing like the morning's dawn, are more sweet to us than they would have been if they went on and on.

Perhaps if we stayed with many of these people for years instead of just sharing somewhat brief times with them, they would have grown too familiar and the glow of those memories would be a little dimmer than they are. It's like any thing which is both rare and good. We always value it more.

Post: #2

You have grasped the reason Oriental culture reveres the cherry blossom, grasshopper: all beauty is tragic, for it fades.

The past is history, and the future is a mystery - but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present.

God save us from people who mean well. -storm

Post: #3

What a post. Really hits home for me.

I've often thought my life to be just a series of temporal periods that move from one to the next. It used to depress me when I looked at it this way, there is a really empty feeling you get when you understand these times will never return in the same way.

It still does to some extent, but like you I came to realize this:

(02-09-2016 06:09 PM)robreke Wrote:  Those things, like youth, which are passing like the morning's dawn, are more sweet to us than they would have been if they went on and on.

Perhaps if we stayed with many of these people for years instead of just sharing somewhat brief times with them, they would have grown too familiar and the glow of those memories would be a little dimmer than they are.

Nothing lasts forever, it's just another hard pill that you must swallow in life. You have to enjoy the moments while you have them and then push on to the next stage once you are past that point.

I also think reminiscing is only good from time to time. I've seen excessive reminiscing do harm to many people I know, having it poison their current state of mind, kill their desire for personal growth and see them become prisoners to their own past.

Post: #4

Post: #5

(02-14-2016 01:31 PM)Aurini Wrote:  

Very good video. Things like this, missed opportunities, make me very anxious about trying to enjoy everything to the fullest.

One day a 90 year old man told me that nothing in life matters, except the love you leave behind. We will not carry anything with us to the next-life (if it exists), except who we are and the love and memories of those who we left behind.

Post: #6

There is nothing sweet and beautiful about the temporal nature of life. Viewing it as such is at best a rationalization maneuver. If given the choice, I would happily choose not to turn into a frail troll and die.

Post: #7

(02-09-2016 06:09 PM)robreke Wrote:  I believe it is the temporal nature of life which makes much of it so sweet.

I think of good friends I had in high school and college and the times we had. I remember one evening with one of my good friends, Bill. He and I left a party with other friends. We rode in the back of a pickup truck on a clear summer night down the beach, while a more sober friend drove us around. We hooted and hollered at the moon, making comments and telling each other jokes so funny, I thought I'd burst. Bill and I along with my other best friends had some great times that one summer. Times that, years now, still make me smile. By the end of the summer, I was thinking to myself that this is one great group of friends and it's only going to get better from here. 'We're going to have so many more nights and great times like this' I thought.

Only, we never did.

I went away to college and Bill went to work at a local hardware store and the others got married or moved off. I'd see some of them on and off as the years went by and we'd share some laughs here and there, but we never hung out like that anymore. I have, as I'm sure you do, countless such stories of times with good friends, good women and family. Times where you were looking forward to being with these people again. Times where you were hoping to get together and recreate that magic. Yet, that memorable day or small stretch of days was all that occurred. Now, it is relegated to your memory.

If this seems like idle reminiscing, it is in a sense. Yet, it is more than that. It's also thoughts on how 'nature's first green is gold' to quote Robert Frost. Those things, like youth, which are passing like the morning's dawn, are more sweet to us than they would have been if they went on and on.

Perhaps if we stayed with many of these people for years instead of just sharing somewhat brief times with them, they would have grown too familiar and the glow of those memories would be a little dimmer than they are. It's like any thing which is both rare and good. We always value it more.

Great way of putting it.

Post: #8

(02-09-2016 06:09 PM)robreke Wrote:  Perhaps if we stayed with many of these people for years instead of just sharing somewhat brief times with them, they would have grown too familiar and the glow of those memories would be a little dimmer than they are. It's like any thing which is both rare and good. We always value it more.

That train of thought was one of the (many) reasons I decided to axe Facebook. Having a literal catalogue of friends who consistently liked and commented on posts in real-time gave me the illusion I still had a connection with them, even if I hadn't seen them in a while. I didn't ponder shared experiences until I realized engagement never returned to reality.

Friends that I established strong bonds with, regardless of location, didn't need social media to keep in touch with me. To others, I was an interactive memory at best.

(02-14-2016 01:18 PM)Designate Wrote:  I've often thought my life to be just a series of temporal periods that move from one to the next. It used to depress me when I looked at it this way, there is a really empty feeling you get when you understand these times will never return in the same way.

That emptiness is what the Japanese call "mono no aware" (物の哀れ). Though it is a crummy feeling, I'd like to think it is a periodic red pill to remind us that if time alone can kill what seem to be solid relationships...anything can.

Post: #9

"For everything sacred has the substance of dreams and memories, and so we experience the miracle of what is separated from us by time or distance suddenly being made tangible. Dreams, memories, the sacred—they are all alike in that they are beyond our grasp. Once we are even marginally separated from what we can touch, the object is sanctified; it acquires the beauty of the unattainable, the quality of the miraculous. Everything, really, has this quality of sacredness, but we can desecrate it at a touch. How strange man is! His touch defiles and yet he contains the source of miracles.” -Yukio Mishima, Spring Snow