I wish I had a memory of that first violent shove, the shock of cold air, the sting of oxygen into new lungs. Everyone should remember being born. It doesn't seem fair that we only remember dying.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the profound experience of being born and the unfairness of life's memories being overshadowed by death.
In this quote, Lauren Destefano expresses a longing to retain the memory of one's birth, highlighting the significance of this life-altering event compared to the memories surrounding death. By emphasizing the raw sensations of being born, such as the shock of cold air and the invigorating breath of oxygen, she suggests that these initial moments are fundamental to our existence and should not be forgotten. This sentiment captures a deep philosophical reflection on the key experiences that shape our lives and the inherent unfairness in our tendency to focus more on death than on the miracle of life.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of life experiences.
Our lives disconnect and reconnect, we move on, and later we may again touch one another, again bounce away. This is the felt shape of a human life, neither simply linear nor wholly disjunctive nor endlessly bifurcating, but rather this bouncey-castle sequence of bumpings-into and tumblings-apart.
Sometimes one has suffered enough to have the right to never say: I am too happy.
If, as they say, the threat of the hangman's noose has a powerful way of focusing one's attention, the same can be said of pregnancy.
I watch the beauty for as long as I can, then turn and face the rest of it.
Most of what we take as being important is not material, whether it's music or feelings or love. They're things we can't really see or touch. They're not material, but they're vitally important to us.
If you want to be unhappy, uncomfortable, and insecure, just spend your life trying to do something that is not right for you. It is just like trying to wear shoes that don't fit.
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