The dead are visible only in the terrible lidless eye of memory. The living, thank heaven, retain the ability to surprise and to disappoint. - Van Houten
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the permanence of memory and the unpredictability of life.
In this quote, Van Houten suggests that while memories of those who have passed away are fixed and immovable, the living possess the unique ability to bring forth new experiences, both delightful and disappointing. This contrast highlights the complex nature of human relationships, where the past remains unchangeable, but the present is filled with possibilities that can evoke varied emotions.
In practice
During a speech about loss and the power of memory, one might reference this quote to emphasize the contrast between the past and the unpredictable nature of life.
Always' was a promise! How can you just break the promise?" "Sometimes people don't always understand the promises they're making when they make them," I said. Isaac shot me a look. "Right, of course. But you keep the promise anyway. That's what love is. Love is keeping the promise anyway. Don't you believe in true love?" I didn't answer. I didn't have an answer. But I thought that if true love did exist, that was a pretty good definition of it.
Augustus Waters was the great star-crossed love of my life. Ours was an epic love story, and I won’t be able to get more than a sentence into it without disappearing into a puddle of tears. Gus knew. Gus knows. I will not tell you our love story, because—like all real love stories—it will die with us, as it should.
I find it really offensive when people say that the emotional experiences of teenagers are less real or less important than those of adults. I am an adult, and I used to be a teenager, and so I can tell you with some authority that my feelings then were as real as my feelings are now.
I don't think pandemics make us afraid of death, I think they make us afraid of oblivion. They force us to grapple with the futility of effort. Also they make us barf which isn't fun either... Wash your hands, cover your coughs, and find a way to hold in balance the futility of effort with the necessity to struggle.
So often we try to make other people feel better by minimizing their pain, by telling them that it will get better (which it will) or that there are worse things in the world (which there are). But that's not what I actually needed. What I actually needed was for someone to tell me that it hurt because it mattered. I have found this very useful to think about over the years, and I find that it is a lot easier and more bearable to be sad when you aren't constantly berating yourself for being sad.
We kiss. Her hands are freezing on my face, and she tastes like coffee and the smell of the onion is still stuck in my nose, and my lips are all dry from the endless winter. And it's awesome.
St. Paul introduced an entirely novel view of marriage, that it existed primarily to prevent the sin of fornication. It is just as if one were to maintain that the sole reason for baking bread is to prevent people from stealing cake.
AFFLICTION, n. An acclimatizing process preparing the soul for another and bitter world.
All of us are made up of the stories that we listen to, the ones we disagree with and the ones that we agree with.
Try to be free: you will die of hunger.
Money is in some respects life's fire: it is a very excellent servant, but a terrible master.
I love all waste _x000D_ And solitary places; where we taste _x000D_ The pleasure of believing what we see _x000D_ Is boundless, as we wish our souls to be.
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