What’s LEFT does not replace that which has passed
The photograph does not replace the person, though it looks the same
The person that changed is NOT the same person, though it’s named the same
The place feels different without someone or something, though it’s still the same place
etc
Let’s not pretend something that is gone to last,
only because some vestige of it seems to still be here
if it’s dead, it’s dead
HOWEVER,
Let’s NOT take it too far either
What’s DEAD is a certain configuration of elements
Some of those elements are still here
Some are gone
That CONFIGURATION is gone
But some of those elements are here
I tell you — THAT configuration is GONE, DEAD. Stop pretending that just because you recreated, reconnected with some of those elements — that you got the WHOLE THING BACK. You didn’t,
But
The elements you DID regain — ARE here indeed
Are NOT yet dead, apparently
Again, this is NOT a consolation, NOT a way to salve yourself with delusions of having RECLAIMED something. What’s dead — is fucking dead
But it is a CALL to realise that this which still PERSISTS — is to be celebrated
And to realise that even when you admit how DEAD the past is..
…perhaps it’s NOT so dead
It’s MORE dead than you’d hope. It’s more DEAD than we like to pretend it is, clinging onto any vestige of what once was, pretending the whole thing is still here, intact,
But perhaps it’s INDEED NOT ENTIRELY dead
Not SO dead so as to not get to celebrate it, celebrate it at least in part is it once was
The person is changed, but you still share a little
Reconciliation should be mostly bitter, the reminder of the DEATH, the CHANGE destroying everything, IMPERMANENCE AND DEATH
But there is a sweet element, something which still lasts, like it did 20 years ago
Be brave and face the truth and realise how everything is DEAD, from your past
Whatever remains is NOT really that thing you knew, you know it’s true. It’s JUST NOT the same,
BUT,
That which still is the same,
Learn to appreciate for the last time
It will be gone tomorrow too