I was reading this amusing article on a blog; http://eatingmyworld.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/the-sham/ by Eatingmyworld, about travel in the Holy Land, Israel, Bethlehem and so on and his disappointment in the sites, the commercialism thereabouts, the tackiness of it all. It brought a thought to me that almost never do things that one really looks forward to live up to expectations!
The human imagination is a monstrous grandiose thing that has limitless ability to construct a world without limits. I am reminded about stories of people, blind since birth, they had an operation to restore their sight. When asked their very first impression, on seeing the world for the first time, their invariable response is that they were disappointed. Instead of living in a dark velvety castle they discover they live in a single-wide mobile home, instead of colors beyond comprehension, the colors are muted and dull. Imagine their whole lives thinking about how a loved one would look and then seeing them for the first time, how could they measure up?
This is why a movie never exceeds a good book in expressing the author’s vivid imagination and storytelling. When I was in 7th grade we all read “The Hobbit” and “Lord of the Rings” http://www.lordoftherings.net/ it was our Harry Potter, we loved Tolkien! We would go into the library and discuss excitedly various aspects of the books. I am sure we all had our view of what the Gollum looked like, it might have even changed with our moods. Is there any way the movie could capture the wonder we felt as young adults? Once the movie is made and Gollum is pictured, once there is a definitive image, imagining something else is difficult, at least for me.
I think this is why many love affairs don’t work out, the initial lust and excitement doesn’t hold up to the day-to-day grind of reality and early morning sobriety. Also the saying of “be careful what you wish for” has seeds of this sown in. Not only do few people really know what is even good for them, but their wishes have become unrealistic fantasies that can never be hard reality. I suppose that begs the question is reality hard?
So many people fantasize about trips and locations, they think about their dream vacations for years and years. They work and save all their working life till they retire (which is a bad idea IMHO, travel when young enough to enjoy it!), then, when they finally get there they are disappointed, I hear this often.
Remember those tacky folks selling tacky junk on the way to Machu Piichu, the Taj Mahal and the River Jordan have to make a living too. They aren’t there to fulfill your fantasy or vision they are there to feed their kids. So have fun and realize that the world is small and fragile and whereever you go to escape reality and live a dream, the one constant is that you will be there too! Your own face will follow along and keep an eye on you and remind you where you came from.
2 comments:
True. The world is a much bleaker place than we think it is. That is the ability of the "healthy" brain's function to gloss over reality to make it seem much happier and hopeful than it actually is. It is said that the depressed are not really mentally ill--they just see the world as it actually is.
So, seeing the world as better than it is is not limited to the blind. People generally have the habit of seeing themselves as better looking than they are (their significant others as well), their position in life as better than it is, etc. That is the "mental illness of the normal" that allows them to go on from day to day.
As my doctor said rightly, we are all terminally ill. We will all be dead in an immeasurably small time in the remaining life of the universe. Nothing that we think matters now will matter at all in a similiar miniscule amount of time of the universe--not us, not our children or their children, not any great monuments or work of art or any works of man.
And that's the happy message for today.
Too bad people kill other people and hate others over religions and philosophies not based on fact. Seems to me, with so little time left, we should be helping everyone make their little time on this planet better.
In passing, you and Gollum have a similar thing in common--your hairline, LOL.
This is definitely true. You really need to travel with an open mind and realize that everything will be different than what you think it will be. Sometimes it's not a disappointment though. I wouldnt have thought I would like Israel when in fact I like it a lot.
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