Day 3,578 —Reflection on Past Lives—

           I watched Past Lives over the weekend and felt mostly annoyed with the film, but the more I thought about it. The more I realized what it was about. Sure, there were things that I didn’t like about it (the uneven tone). However, when I realized the film was about this topic of mourning for something that never was, the more I began to respect the intentions.

         Not a lot of movies are about this idea. The only other one I could think of was Lost in Translations. When I was talking about it, I kept thinking that “closure doesn’t exist.” Not my idea, but I remember I read about the idea somewhere and it really convinced me.

         I looked it up and found this article and book, The Myth of Closure. The author defines the concept of Ambiguous Grief, which is about grieving things that are complicated. Like the deaths people were dealing with during COVID-19, or if your loved one doesn’t necessarily die, but disappears, or any type of experience where there is grief but not a clear way to process it.

So many more thoughts on these concepts.