To feel, or not to feel

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Sometimes I will look at the stray cat burning with envy. It rolls around in the grass with out a care in the world. It doesn't feel pain. Sure, it will feel physical pain, but I'm talking about the pain that is everlasting. The images that permeate your brain during that 2,000 yard stare. The ones that linger around when you finally get up to accomplish tasks throughout your day. The ones that keep you up at night. What if you had a chance to make them completely obsolete? Grab the big pink eraser and blow the shavings goodbye? You could have the benefit of never feeling that aching misery again.  Of course, this would come at a cost, like everything else in the world. Your good memories would be gone too. The ones that keep you going. The ones that make you suck up the snot running from your nose.The ones that are represented by the pictures you cling to and look for when you're sad. The ones that give you faith. Would the cost out weigh the benefit?

At first thought , a world with sameness sounds fair, peaceful, and structured with good intentions, but what we soon find out that it is the diversity and emphasis that makes the world beautiful. Jonas mis uses the word "starving". Ironically he is starving. He is not starving for food, but for answers and hope.

This book made me realize how valuable both my good and bad memories are. It made me realize how blessed I am to be able too see, touch, and feel. Sometimes we feel too much and wish it would go away. We all look for ways to make the pain go away, but without the pain we feel from time to time we would not be able to feel the love.

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 10, 2017 at 6:43 AM

    I like that you touch on a major fear in humans -- pain. How interesting that it's the very presence of pain that makes us human. Without it, what would life be like? It's king of like that old saying that we all heard as children "if everybody was the same, wouldn't that be boring?" I think The Giver does teach us that without our own personal experiences, we lose parts of ourselves, and society loses its diversity.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownOctober 10, 2017 at 10:05 AM

    Yes and because of that pain we are able to produce love.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownOctober 11, 2017 at 8:33 AM

    I loved your post. You allowed this book to take a deeper meaning to you and discuss something hard for humans to cope with. I think you would have an easy time teaching this book in the classroom.

    ReplyDelete

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