“You forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget.” Cormac McCarthy
Fiction is a metaphor for life.
While reading McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Road, I stumbled upon a bit of wisdom. I’ll set the stage for you.
A father and son are traveling down a road that stretches across a post-apocalyptic America. The earth has been scorched, the population has run out of food, and the few who remain have turned into the walking dead who hunt, steal, and kill to survive.
The father and son have made it halfway but have experienced horrific things, and the young boy has seen more than he should. At one point, he wanders into a presumed abandoned home to discover near-dead humans being held captive.
His father finds him and they both escape but are nearly killed. Huddled around a campfire that evening the boy asks his father questions to try and make sense of what he’s seen.
Their conversation begins with the father saying:
“Just remember that the things you put into your head are there forever. You might want to think about that.”
“You forget some things, don’t you?”
“Yes. You forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget.”
I’d never heard this truth so concisely delivered in my four decades. What we allow ourselves to experience has the power to mark us forever.
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