There's this drama I enjoyed so much, when I watched it - See you in my 19th life. As the title alludes, it follows a character who has lived 19 lives, and still has memories of all her lives. Everything she went through in that K-drama, actually, aids my answer to this prompt.
The ladies of hive community posed an interesting question for the week and it's a great opportunity for me to be able to participate in it. I'm so very exhausted, at the point of writing this, and need to go to bed as soon as possible, so dear reader, please excuse the typographical errors and the hastily constructed paragraphs, that will characterize this post.
If I were reincarnated by a very powerful deity, and was given a choice as to what to do with my memories, and the people in them, there's only one thing I would do. To some humans, memories signify existence of an experience that once was a reality. To some, they are manuals through which they maneuver similar happenings in their current life, while to others, they are actual just what they are - the past. Since they are based solely on a person's past experiences, they could as well be described as parts of us, created by us.
I enjoy taking deep dives into my past, looking at how I could have handled some things better. I enjoy looking back at my past experiences, appreciating how far I've come, laughing at the crazy things i did at the time, and cringing at the stupid things I definitely should not have done, knowing they will haunt me for a very long time. I enjoy reliving past experiences with the same person who was involved, and having us reminisce the times we shared. But in a situation like this, would i really want to still keep these memories? I doubt that.
I see reincarnation as a chance to doing life once again. A chance to start something all over. An opportunity for me to actually Re-live. And I don't mean just living. I mean reliving life itself completely. Figuring things out, seeing things from a fresh perspective, making stupid decisions, knowing that I'll have to live the rest of my life with it's consequences, and not having a past memory cloud my judgement. Living a new life with my past memories still intact, will be a life akin to torture.
I referenced that movie in my first paragraph, because there were so many painful memories the main character had to live through and I don't think that's something I look forward to doing. Probably if I was given an opportunity to filter the memories, and leave the less painful ones, my answer would be different but as long as it's a complete memory, count me out. In that movie, our main character tried so hard to stop people she knew from her former life, from reliving their mistakes, in their new one but it all backfired.
Knowing me, I could be overwhelmed, and be tempted to reach out to that person from my memories, that seems to be making a grave mistake but who knows what the consequences of that would be? I don't even want to think that far.
Most times, I tend to fall deeply into comparison between situations and people around me. Now, if I had all my memories intact, and probably people in my past life already left me with bars so high, how exactly do I make the most out of my new life? Whatever action I take would be influenced by my past life experiences and to me, that's like living in a shadow cast under the tenets of my past life. I wouldn't want to live my new life, as a shadow of the former would I?
Ohh, I've actually written more than I expected to write down, considering my mental state as at the time I began this post. Anyways, this is my answer to the prompt for this week. What do you think about this topic? Share it with us in the Ladies of Hive Community and find more about the prompt here
Thanks for reading.
Images are mine.