The human brain cannot encompass total absence. Like infinity, it is simply not something that the organ runs to. The space someone leaves must be filled, so we dream forever of those who are no longer here. Our minds make them live again.
Interpretation
The human mind struggles to comprehend total emptiness, leading us to recreate memories of those we've lost.
This quote by Anna Funder explores the idea that the human brain is incapable of fully grasping the concept of absence or loss. Instead of accepting the void left by those who have passed, we fill that emptiness with memories and dreams, allowing us to keep their presence alive in our minds. It speaks to the enduring impact of loved ones on our thoughts and emotions, emphasizing how our memories can defy the finality of death, creating a bridge between past and present.
In practice
During a memorial service, this quote can evoke reflection on the lasting memories of those we've lost.
i understand that the world was nothing: a mechanical chaos of casual, brute enmity on which we stupidly impose our hopes and fears. i understood that, finally and absolutely, i alone exist. all the rest, i saw, is merely what pushes me, or what i push against, blindly - as blindly as all that is not myself pushes back. i create the whole universe, blink by blink.
We cannot understand all the traits we have inherited. Sometimes we can be strangers to ourselves.
Complete adaptation to environment means death. The essential point in all response is the desire to control environment.
We have not overthrown the divine right of kings to fall down for the divine right of experts.
God, the Great Giver, can open the whole universe to our gaze in the narrow space of a single land.
During the Great Depression, African Americans were faced with problems that were not unlike those experienced by the most disadvantaged groups in society. The Great Depression had a leveling effect, and all groups really experienced hard times: poor whites, poor blacks.
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