Imagine waking up and having no idea who you are. No memory whatsoever. Usually when we meet a new person we say, 'Hi, my name is Altie' (or whatever your name is.) What if you had to say to a stranger, 'Hi, what's my name?' because you just can't remember?
It happens. Maybe rarely. I've probably heard about it way more in fictitious novels than in reality, but it exists.
Your whole life is gone. You need a stranger (who could very well be your best friend, husband, or sister, and you wouldn't even know it) to tell you all about yourself, and how you led your life until this point. You may have been a Docter, a lawyer, royalty, and none of it would matter. It's hard to do your job, and act like a powerful person who commands respect, if you can't even recall being that person.
It's scary. You lose your identity, you lose You. It's like starting life anew. You know how to talk, how to walk, and do all the normal functions, because your body has those natural reactions imprinted in it. But you have to recreate your life, a life you don't even remember living.
It's also thrilling, exciting, exhilerating. You can be anyone you want to be. You have a fresh start. You can say what you want to say, think what you want to think, have no opinions about the world and everyone in it. If you were a pessimist your whole life, you can now be an optimist, without much hassle to change your habits. Refreshing.
It's like that question, after 80 or 90 years on this earth, will you look back with regrets, and wish you lived your alloted years differently. For each person this answer will vary. Some will wish they had a family instead of focusing on their career. Some will wish they made a name for themself, instead of being a stay at home mom. Very few people will have no regrests at all.
But most people, if given the chance, will not actually go back and change anything. Every single mistake and wrong turn you made in your life helped to bring you to this point, and made you who you are today. If you change even one small thing, you may be a very different person, either good, or bad. Why take that chance?
Life is about living in the moment, and doing all you can now, so you won't have regrets later on. It's about learning to be happy being YOU, and not wishing you were someone else. It's about making mistakes, and learning from them, so you can be a smarter wiser person from it.
I wouldn't want to start over. I wouldn't want to lose all I lived until now, even if it meant a fresh start. And I don't wish I was someone else. Most of the time I'm happy being me.
Live in the moment. Not in the past, and not in the future.
very inspiring.
ReplyDeleteI have to ask: you say '...doing all you can now, so you won't have regrets later on.' but then you opine that 'every single mistake and wrong turn..made you who you are today' and that you don't have any regrets, even with the mistakes you've made. So will you have regrets or will you not, if you have not done all you can, but rather made mistakes??
If that sounds confusing (I'm scratching my head rereading it...), what I mean: you say not to regret anything, and you wouldn't change anything, since it all made you who you are. So why do you say that we should do all we can 'so you won't have regrets later on.'? I thought we won't have any regrets?
and b'chlal, you said you shouldn't live in the future. you can always give presents to the Future You...
ReplyDeleteI think you should learn from the past, then consider the potential consequences of the future, and then make a decision in the present :-D
ReplyDeleteThat being said I wouldn't want to be anyone else even after all the dumb mistakes I made.
Thank you!! Yossi, you made me laugh.
ReplyDeleteYou have confudled me...
We do have regrets. There are always regrets, later on. And I never said that I dont regret stuff I did. I most certainly do. But the best you can do is try your best now, to do the things you want to look back at in pleasure, and stay away from the things that will make you look back and cringe.
And even if you have regrets, there's no point in living life always looking over your shoulder and saying, 'damn, why did I do that, I'm such an idiot'. If you have to look bacjk, at least say,. 'hahahahahahaha I'm so stupid, I used to be so young and foolish.' But it shouldn't bother you.
Does that make sense?
Feivel- good way to confuse people.
Once i was chit chatting with somebody and I couldn't remember how old I was. It was very awkward.
ReplyDeletelol. That's not as bad as forgetting your name.
ReplyDeletelol, I once accidently told someone I was 32. Re. post, I don't know how much one's personality would change. If your persona is a result of cause and affect, would the affect dissapear just because the cause is gone? One may not remember WHY they react or behave in certain ways but do it nonetheless. Somethings may be more instinctual as well.
ReplyDelete