March 17, 2004
Quote
"He acted as though everything he did were to be repeated endlessly, to return eternally, without the slightest doubt about his actions. He was convinced he was right, and for him that was a sign not of narrowmindedness but of virtue. Yes, that man lived in a history different from Tomas’s: a history that was not (or did not realize it was) a sketch."
from The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
Posted by mike, March 17, 2004 6:27 PM?
Posted by: Brian at March 18, 2004 12:24 AMVery eloquent, Brian.
In the book, Kundera talks about how we can never know whether the decisions we make are the right ones because we only get one chance at them. We're "sketching" our history as we go, but it will never be filled in. In his opinion, some people go through life thinking about that--basically agonizing over whether they're doing the right thing--and some people don't.
Posted by: mike at March 18, 2004 12:04 PMI just hope you made the right decision including that quote in this blog. What if it was the wrong thing to do!? Then what!? Huh? Huh? :-P
I think it is all right to agonize over whether or not you are making the right decision, because whether or not it is a sketch or not, your decisions all have consequences. However, it is probably a waste of time to agonize over the decisions you already have made, as some people are prone to do.
I just hope it wasn't a big mistake saying that. Who knows what the consequences will be!? ;-)
Posted by: shane at March 18, 2004 12:19 PMSome people are just hard-wired to agonize over past and future decisions. It would be nice to just let things go, but unfortunately it's impossible for some of us.
Posted by: mike at March 18, 2004 1:54 PMIt is definitely easier said than done.
Posted by: shane at March 18, 2004 2:25 PMIn the last couple of years I have become much better at letting things go. It's not easy, that's for sure. Just the other day I caught myself thinking about some stupid decision I made when I was in my late teens. For a minute or two I felt an overwhelming feeling of guilt and self hatred. I was able to easily laugh it off, but I have my doubts I'll ever be rid of those thoughts entirely. It is a great relief to know, though, that these thoughts will never be dominate again. Maybe, just maybe, I'll be rid of them entirely in the near future. You never know.
Posted by: Shawn at March 19, 2004 12:19 AMIt is funny how those teen-years can slip into your conscious thoughts with no warning. One minute you are enjoying a nice walk in the Mall drinking a Coke, and suddenly you are depressed and regretting that you said something embarrassing to a teacher in drama class, or didn't ask a girl out, or shot a guy just because he was snoring. And what the hell was I thinking when I raced this guy, Wayne, down U.S. 31 at 80 mph on the way to school when I was 17? That was really stupid. We could have been killed. Easily the dumbest thing I ever did.
The snoring comment was from a commercial I remember for some Wild West history books. ;-)
Posted by: shane at March 19, 2004 9:40 AMTo clarify, I think Kundera was just saying that some people do agonize and some people don't. He disagrees with people who don't, because he sees their surety not as virtue but as narrowmindedness. That whole "unexamined life is not worth leading" business.
However, he sees the downside of agonizing as being like me: constantly hounded by the decisions I've made, playing them over and over in my head and coming up with alternatives that I'll never get to try.
Posted by: mike at March 19, 2004 10:32 AMIf only life were a Choose Your Own Adventure book.
Posted by: Amy at March 19, 2004 11:17 AM