After watching Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I was actually kind of sad. The movie is about a man, Joel who falls in love with a woman named Clementine. After dating for a couple years, Joel discovers that she has erased him from her mind and has no recollection of knowing each other. Saddened by this, Joel goes to the doctor to have the same procedure done, yet realizes halfway through the procedure that he still loves her. The story is about the ability to erase someone from our memory, and the effects that follow that decision.
The movie made me wonder how we would react to such a phenomenon of being able to erase a person out of our lives. Part of me thinks that it would be somewhat freeing, while the other part of me is completely saddened by the idea. I would never have experienced the joys that come with the pain. "Maybe the past is like an anchor holding us back. Maybe you have to let go of who you are to become who you will be." It's interesting to think that because of the past we either hold back more or less. When you get hurt by someone, you build a wall up, as if it's our bodies defense mechanism. This relates back to physical injury brought up by Wall, in the sense that when we injure ourselves our body produces pain and inflammation in order to reduce using the injured area. I believe our minds work in a parallel manner. When we are hurt once, we build up certain mechanisms to prevent it from happening again. Yet the ironic part is that pain is inevitable in most circumstances. Through watching the movie I looked back on my own experiences and although I know some have had a considerable impact on me, part of me doesn't regret the pain. Love, for example, is an amazing experience, and although I suffered from that, I also have some of my best memories. "Everyone says love hurts, but that is not true. Loneliness hurts.Rejection hurts. Losing someone hurts. Envy hurts. Everyone gets these things confused with love, but in reality love is the only thing in this world that covers up all pain and makes someone feel wonderful again. Love is the only thing in this world that does not hurt."
Overall I think people are willing to sacrifice pain in order to feel the pleasures in life. As they say, you don't know what is good until you have experienced the bad. We wouldn't appreciate the "good" moments if there was nothing for us to compare them to. And most importantly, "although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it."
The movie made me wonder how we would react to such a phenomenon of being able to erase a person out of our lives. Part of me thinks that it would be somewhat freeing, while the other part of me is completely saddened by the idea. I would never have experienced the joys that come with the pain. "Maybe the past is like an anchor holding us back. Maybe you have to let go of who you are to become who you will be." It's interesting to think that because of the past we either hold back more or less. When you get hurt by someone, you build a wall up, as if it's our bodies defense mechanism. This relates back to physical injury brought up by Wall, in the sense that when we injure ourselves our body produces pain and inflammation in order to reduce using the injured area. I believe our minds work in a parallel manner. When we are hurt once, we build up certain mechanisms to prevent it from happening again. Yet the ironic part is that pain is inevitable in most circumstances. Through watching the movie I looked back on my own experiences and although I know some have had a considerable impact on me, part of me doesn't regret the pain. Love, for example, is an amazing experience, and although I suffered from that, I also have some of my best memories. "Everyone says love hurts, but that is not true. Loneliness hurts.Rejection hurts. Losing someone hurts. Envy hurts. Everyone gets these things confused with love, but in reality love is the only thing in this world that covers up all pain and makes someone feel wonderful again. Love is the only thing in this world that does not hurt."
Overall I think people are willing to sacrifice pain in order to feel the pleasures in life. As they say, you don't know what is good until you have experienced the bad. We wouldn't appreciate the "good" moments if there was nothing for us to compare them to. And most importantly, "although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it."
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