Final: Moving on From The Past

Hope and despair are a part of each of our floating worlds as we form and break the personal relationships that shape our lives.  These lost associations can be deeply saddening events and life changing affairs. I personally, for example, have had to let go of my ex-fiancé and force myself from not being caught in my own nostalgia and wanting. I had to move on and let go. It was a difficult course of events but one which I have greatly come to appreciate.

The stories of Ono, from the book “An Artist of the Floating World” and the narrator from “The Auction of The Red Ruby Slippers” are an excellent portrayal of my own life. These books focuses on two individuals who were both suffering from the need to live in the past and an over welling sense of nostalgia for those individuals and events they had forever lost. For example, Ono from the book “An Artist of the Floating World” had an overwhelming degree of nostalgia for his past. He could not let go of the days of his youth when he was seen by almost all as a hero and deeply respected. His elder life revolved around these memories and almost destroyed him internally. His final ability to escape his nostalgia was his pinnacle achievement.  He allowed himself to move on and enjoy the present rather then dwelling on a world which no longer existed.

The narrator from the story “The Auction of The Red Ruby Slippers” was also a great example of similar story of being able to release myself from the past. The narrator within this story had been crushed by the loss of his true love, Gale. Gale had been cheating on him with a caveman she had met through the television. This was a strange course of events but took place in a time when scientific advancement and human materialism had come to its pinnacle. But strangeness aside, this lost of his love was a life breaking event for the narrator. He had been crushed and wanted to recover his lost love. Therefore, he chose to devote his every action towards the pursuit of getting Gale back. He believed without her his life was meaningless.

To win back his love the narrator went to the auction of the Red Ruby Slippers. At this action, there were a pair of shoes “The Red Ruby Slippers” that were said to have to have powers beyond limit. The narrator believed that by acquiring these shoes that he could give them to Gale and win back her love. But right as he was about to win the bid, he came to a life altering epiphany. He realized that he really didn’t love the woman he once knew. He instead had been in love with the pursuit of his lost love, not the actual person. When he finally realized he could actually get her back, he lost all interest. He suddenly recognized that the woman, he had wanted, no longer existed. She was a cheater and not worth his devotion. Instead, he chose to look to the future and towards pursuits that would personally make his life happier. This realization was a instrumental moment in his life. He knew now that by not living in the past, he could make himself happy and be able to move on to better pursuits.

Both these stories have been very insightful towards my own life. I have come to realize over the past six months that I no longer need to live in the past. The woman who I used to love no longer exists. Instead in her place is a different individual who I would no longer choose to be with. I can now move on and devote myself to a prosperous upcoming career and a life with better pursuits and a better woman.