We knew - but didn't want to know - what was going to happen, the sky descending upon our heads like the shadow of a falling piano in a cartoon.
Aleksandar HemonRead
I do have a sense of displacement as constant instability — the uninterrupted existence of everything that I love and care about is not guaranteed at all. I wait for catastrophes.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects a profound awareness of life's unpredictability and the constant presence of potential loss.
In this quote, Aleksandar Hemon expresses a deep feeling of displacement due to the inherent instability of life. He acknowledges that the things he cherishes are not assured, leading to a sense of waiting for disasters. This perspective highlights the fragility of existence and the emotional turmoil that comes with the awareness of inevitable change and the unpredictability of life’s circumstances.
Themes
InstabilityDisplacementLifeChangeLoss
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a reflective speech about the unpredictability of life during a graduation ceremony.
More from Aleksandar Hemon
All quotes →I have two homes, like someone who leaves their hometown and/or parents and then establishes a life elsewhere. They might say that they're going home when they return to see old friends or parents, but then they go home as well when they go to where they live now. Sarajevo is home, Chicago is home.
Aleksandar HemonRead
Home is where somebody notices when you are no longer there.
Aleksandar HemonRead
I loved you because there was no other place for me to go. We were married because we did not know what else to do with each other. You never knew me, nothing about me, what died inside me, what lived invisibly.
Aleksandar HemonRead
All the lives I could live, all the people I will never know, never will be, they are everywhere. That is all that the world is.
Aleksandar HemonRead
I wanted us to share the sense that the number of wrong moves far exceeds the number of good moves, to share the frightening instability of the correct decision, to bond in being confounded.
Aleksandar HemonRead
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