My father once told me that a happy ending is just the place where you choose to stop telling the story. So this is where I choose to stop. More things are still going to happen, of course, some good, some bad. Some things never get any better. When people die they stay dead. None of us knows why we love, or why we stop loving, or why everyone we love we lose.
Interpretation
A happy ending is a subjective choice, reflecting on the nature of storytelling and love.
This quote explores the concept that a 'happy ending' is not an absolute conclusion but rather a personal choice on when to conclude a narrative. It acknowledges the complexities of love and loss, suggesting that while we seek contentment in our stories, the reality of life includes ongoing challenges and inevitable loss, reminding us that happiness can coexist with sorrow and uncertainty.
In practice
In a graduation speech to highlight how life continues to unfold after a significant milestone.
He wishes he had never entered the funhouse. But he has. Then he wishes he were dead. But he's not. Therefore he will construct funhouses for others and be their secret operator -- though he would rather be among the lovers for whom funhouses are designed.
The great lie is that it is civilization. It's not civilized. It has been literally the most blood thirsty brutalizing system ever imposed upon this planet. That is not civilization. That's the great lie, is that it represents civilization.
The nakedness of the indigent world may be clothed from the trimmings of the vain.
Human society is a ceaseless growth, and unfoldment in terms of spirituality.
Laws are not masters but servants, and he rules them who obey them.
Prejudice is a raft onto which the shipwrecked mind clambers and paddles to safety.
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