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I find myself frequently yearning for a fresh start. A time where my past doesn’t exist, or is at least forgotten. Where my errors, and old perspectives are inconsequential and only my present experience and future outlook matters.
I delete old blog posts, text messages, emails, internet history, and music, all out of a desire to create my own existential ‘newness’. To take myself back to a place of innocence, a place I can ‘start over’ again.
The feeling I am trying to capture is almost similar to what happens when you move far away from your home. No one knows you. Your history, your mistakes. You can create something new. A new identity. And you can make it whatever you want. The difference is that I desire that feeling with the people closest to me.
And that’s where I’ve been wrong.
But, We Have Lost The Way
The way of life can be free and beautiful. But we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men’s souls…Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give youth a future and old age a security. – Charlie Chaplin
This is an excerpt from the comedy The Great Dictator released in 1940. If you haven’t yet seen this movie, I would highly suggest watching it. One very inspiring rendition of the speech that I quoted above can be found on youtube and is entitled “The Greatest Speech Ever Made” which has garnered over 13 million views as of the writing of this post.
I must admit, I had not seen the movie let alone heard the speech until just a few months ago. When I finally did, I was really captured by each and every word that was spoken in Chaplin’s speech. In fact, it brought an extreme variation of emotions to the forefront of my mind. I felt everything from despair and shame to courage and hope.
Interestingly, the context of the movie/speech is that it was produced during the beginning of World War II. Although it is labeled as a comedy, the film ideologically opposed the rising Nazi regime and therefore had a serious undertone to it. Even though it had a noticeable application to the World War II era, I believe that we can apply the words from this speech to our society today.
Disclaimer
The ideas and thoughts expressed in these posts do not reflect the beliefs of any organization or individual, except my own. Ironically enough, however, these posts may not even reflect how I currently think or feel. I have grown and changed over the years - and rather than delete or edit old content I have decided to leave my posts as I originally wrote them to preserve their authenticity.