Since I learned that someone I know is going to India I've been thinking about the country and I find myself romanticizing the time I spent there. I say romanticize because the truth of the matter is, traveling is hard work, especially in a country like India
It's funny how I can look back on the times crammed into a smelly, dirty, cold passenger train full of rude peasants with nostalgia. While conveniently forgetting about all the sleepless nights and cramped bus seats and dirty beds and cold showers and confusion I dealt with along the way. Except I haven't really forgotten those difficulties. I just remember them with more fondness than I actually felt at the time.
I'm not sure what the word is, but there's a term for this tendency to look back on difficult times with undue positive perspective. It's done all the time with war. War and soldiers have always been romanticized, people need to be more skeptical about anything that portrays war as a noble and worthwhile endeavor. Maybe we wouldn't be spending 700 billion dollars a year on defense if war was looked upon with more suspicion.
Anyway, someone I know (not a family member) has cancer and it makes me sad. People die. That is life. parents, friends, aunts, uncles, grandparents. everyone poops, and everyone dies. I like to believe I am more aware of death than most people; so what does it mean that I still find it so jarring to encounter death, in life? Does this mean the lessons of death are lost upon me?
And the injustice of our health care system has never seemed more perverted and evil than it does to me right now. So, right now, I am wondering what my life will look like in the end. If I make it to the point where I die from age related diseases and system failures, who will take care of me and how am I going to pay for it?
It's funny how I can look back on the times crammed into a smelly, dirty, cold passenger train full of rude peasants with nostalgia. While conveniently forgetting about all the sleepless nights and cramped bus seats and dirty beds and cold showers and confusion I dealt with along the way. Except I haven't really forgotten those difficulties. I just remember them with more fondness than I actually felt at the time.
I'm not sure what the word is, but there's a term for this tendency to look back on difficult times with undue positive perspective. It's done all the time with war. War and soldiers have always been romanticized, people need to be more skeptical about anything that portrays war as a noble and worthwhile endeavor. Maybe we wouldn't be spending 700 billion dollars a year on defense if war was looked upon with more suspicion.
Anyway, someone I know (not a family member) has cancer and it makes me sad. People die. That is life. parents, friends, aunts, uncles, grandparents. everyone poops, and everyone dies. I like to believe I am more aware of death than most people; so what does it mean that I still find it so jarring to encounter death, in life? Does this mean the lessons of death are lost upon me?
And the injustice of our health care system has never seemed more perverted and evil than it does to me right now. So, right now, I am wondering what my life will look like in the end. If I make it to the point where I die from age related diseases and system failures, who will take care of me and how am I going to pay for it?
This was an official India Immigration office, I shit you not. This was at one of the Nepali-Indian border crossings.
Anyway, I have a ton of advice I'm going to share with that girl who is going to India. I'm so excited for her, and a little jealous...take me with youuuuuuuuu!
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