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July 15, 2004
Sorrow
Brent then said that humans are the only animal able to feel the pain of sorrow that has been stretched out through linear time. He said our curse as humans is that we are trapped in time - our curse is that we are forced to interpret life as a sequence of events - a story - and that when we can't figure out what our particular story is we feel lost somehow. "Dogs only have a present tense in their lives," he continued. "Their memories are like those carved ice swans you see at weddings, that look good but melt in an hour. Humans have to endure everything in life in agonizingly endless clock time - every single second of it. Not only this, but we have to remember having endured our entire lives, as well. What a drag, no? It's amazing we all haven't gone mad."
- Life After God, Douglas Coupland
Posted by lainey at July 15, 2004 08:14 PM