RaveVlog

Letting go is one of the hardest things a person can do. It doesn't mean they're giving up, it means they're moving on. We hold on to things we value as if they will cease to exist when we let go. The truth is they won't. Letting go or giving up isn't an act of cowardice; quite often it's an act of supreme bravery. "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" tells us to accept things as they are and make the most of what we have when all hope is lost.

I remember seeing my dad sitting on the living room couch as he watched the news. He's one of the most positive and cheerful people I know and it often puzzled me knowing what he does for a living. I asked him if dealing with dying people on a daily basis is a depressing job. He replied something along the lines of "We tend to keep a lighthearted environment at the hospital." When I asked him if breaking the bad news is the worst part of his job, he told me that it was, but every once in a while he breaks out great news and it makes it all worth it. The ups and down of life apply everywhere. In the case of this film, it's in a relationship. As Joel discovers throughout his mental journey, the ups are sometimes worth all the downs.

After a break up, the very memories you once cherished, the ones that drew a smile on your face whenever you remembered them seem none existent. That's probably due to the recently bad incident towering and blocking all things wonderful from your thoughts. I think it's an act of self-preservation to let the bad memories stick and allow great ones to slip through our fingers. It makes moving on easier.

After Joel and Clementine learn they've had their memories erased because things just didn't work out, they somehow choose to travel that same road again anyway. I think it's a perfect ending to a perfect film. As we're so often told, it's about the journey not the destination. They know what is waiting at the end of that road and they choose to walk through it anyway. The journey has been erased and therefore, they choose to re-experience it. Perhaps it's to arrive at that conclusion because that's the only way they'll understand the nature of their previous destination. Or maybe, they share a tiny ounce of mutual hope. After all, they know the pitfalls and hidden traps on that road from listening to their Lacuna tapes. Dodging them is all that needs to be done to arrive at a different destination. This is precisely how second chances are meant to be taken.

Whenever, I watch this film it steers my eyes away from the empty half of the glass of water and makes me acknowledge that there's a full half right below. For that very reason, I'm eternally grateful for its existence.

"Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean, Tears from the depths of some devine despairRise in the heart, and gather to the eyes, In looking on the happy autumn fields, And thinking of the days that are no more." - Alfred Tennyson

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,I took the one less traveled byAnd that has made all the difference." - Robert Frost

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