Concepts: Loss
Occasionally, I will want to shed light on a particular subject or thought, but I won’t have- or won’t want to have- a clear intent or defined stance on it. These will be more like thoughts to share. Maybe they can prove valuable and serve as writing prompts or talking points or something to mull over. These entries I will head as “Concepts”. Enjoy!
The concept of Loss is a constant in the stories we tell. We are held captive by stories of lost loves, of innocence lost, and of nations or people who lost a battle. We have even lost whole kingdoms, and tell tales of lost cities, nations and tribes. There has been knowledge lost, and ways of life lost; and our minds think of some far distant place or of some ancient people, and in that place or with those people, all of life’s mysteries were understood.
Even the comparatively minor things like losing wallets and keys become a focal point in our day. How many times have you or a friend, built entire conversations around such tragedies? The frantic and obsessive retelling of how a phone was lost, and a search lasted for hours, and it made you late, or you snapped at someone, and how stupid did you feel when you found it in the clothes hamper? These losses, even the trivial, become central points in what we communicate and express.
Lets’ come back to the more severe forms of Loss. The type of Loss that is more personal. We can get lost. We can lose ourselves, our identity. We mourn the loss of a family member, a romance, our health, our youth, jobs… the list goes on.
We can even lose our minds, our very sanity. That’s a scary one.
The word loss (or lose, lost, etc.) itself holds a hefty weight, and so many of the phrases we use are built around that singular concept. I have already used one – we can lose our minds. Some others that come to mind are: “I once was lost…”, “Tis better than to have loved and lost…”, “I am sorry for your loss”.
So what is the importance of the concept of Loss for us? There is the obvious reason – that loss is painful, and our minds remember pain very well. And like all other pains, we want it removed or lessened, or forgotten. Loss presents itself as something that must have a resolution. We want what was missed to be regained. We want something in return, anything in some cases. Closure is important to us, we want something that feels complete.
More interesting to me then, is how Loss makes us yearn. It makes us think, it makes us remember. It also in turns, makes us seek out, it makes us want to discover or rediscover. In our lives and in our stories that pattern resides: loss crosses into the need to find.
