Our Last Summer

We had a drink in each café

And you, you talked of politics, philosophy

And I smiled like Mona Lisa…

That was from ABBA’s Our Last Summer, a song which tells of a woman’s precious memories of Paris a long time ago. Wow, imagine having a drink in each café – that’s practically bar hopping – with someone you really like, and then you talk about politics, philosophy and stuff. Alcohol loosens the tongue and the conversation unfolds naturally. Looking at her, you know from the intensity of her gaze that she is listening to every word you say, and from her quiet smile you can see that she likes what she’s hearing.

 

I was so happy we had met

It was the age of no regret
Oh yes, those crazy years, that was the time

 

Ah, the ‘immortality’ of youth. Living for the present, where each passing moment is all that matters. Carpe diem!

But underneath we had a fear of flying
Of getting old, a fear of slowly dying

We took the chance
Like we were dancing our last dance

Imagine the feeling when you know in your heart that you may never get this happy again. When you connect with somebody at an extraordinary level. When it seems that together you can take on the world. When you could even say something as cheesy as, “I could die this moment because this is the closest to Heaven that I’ll ever get.” And no matter what happens afterward, this moment will be your own happy ending.

And now you’re working in a bank
The family man, a football fan
And your name is Harry
How dull it seems
Yet you’re the hero of my dreams

 

Ah, so they didn’t end up together after all. But this only makes that ‘last summer’ all the more priceless, because it will never happen again – except in her memory, where it is immortalized, frozen in time.

And that is called Life.

I can still recall our last summer
I still see it all
Walks along the Seine,

Laughing in the rain
Our last summer

Memories that remain

 

inner minds

Sweet Sorrow

(First published in April 2009)

I had often heard and even more often said the line “Parting is such sweet sorrow”, but I realized just a moment ago that I actually don’t know exactly what it means. Well personally for me, parting is such a bittersweet experience, and sometimes it can make you smile and cry at the same time, hence, “sweet sorrow”. But I got a little curious as to what the playwright really meant by those words and so I googled them and got a bit more informed.

I found the following two entries useful:

“Poets have long been fascinated by the concept of dialectical emotions–that to be truly happy, one must first be deeply sad; to enjoy the delights of food, one must first experience hunger.  So it is with Juliet’s situation. Saying goodbye to Romeo triggers deep sadness, but that sadness also reminds her of her love for him, and for this reason it is sweet. Saying goodbye also initiates her anticipation of seeing him again, which gives that emotion a pleasant tingle.”

“Juliet is referring to the pain that lovers have faced since time began. She is overjoyed at loving Romeo and amazed at how much it hurts her to have to leave him, the paradox is that without her deep feelings for him parting would not be difficult. It is therefore delightful that parting can hurt so much.”

Ah, so maybe that’s what Shakespeare meant then, the sweet sorrow of Romeo and Juliet at their parting. Nice.

And surely sweet sorrow is not limited to the parting of lovers, but also of family and friends. All of us must have had our share of partings due to work or lifestyle changes – some of which our very own choosing. Some of those partings must have been more on the sweet side while others more on the bitter, but it is always a blend of both – or nothing at all. Because a parting that is not a bit sweet can never be bitter, and a parting that is not a bit bitter can never be sweet. Furthermore, the sweeter it gets, the more bitter it becomes, and the more bitter it becomes, the sweeter it gets. Ah, don’t you just love paradoxes?

I would like to wish a good friend of mine well as she goes back to Manila to pursue a very noble career you could actually call a vocation. Godspeed deep roller. Hope you can visit Davao again soon, and instead of parting, we can go partying. (LOL)