Returning
These last few months I’ve been reflecting on the idea of repeating experiences. I’ve always been somewhat nostalgic, but lately I’ve been pondering whether it’s positive to try to go back.
In search of a piece of art that encapsulated this idea, I remembered this quote by Heraclitus:
“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river, and he’s not the same man.”
— Heraclitus
“δὶς ἐς τὸν αὐτὸν ποταμὸν οὐκ ἂν ἐμβαίης”
— Heraclitus
A few days later I read:
“how paradoxical it is to seek in reality for the pictures that are stored in one's memory, which must inevitably lose the charm that comes to them from memory itself and from their not being apprehended by the senses.”
— Marcel Proust
“la contradiction que c'est de chercher dans la réalité les tableaux de la mémoire, auxquels manquerait toujours le charme qui leur vient de la mémoire même et de n'être pas perçus par les sens.”
— Marcel Proust
Today, remembering a sunset over a hostile sea, it hit me: in none of the memories I wanted to revisit was I trying to replicate a memory.