Marie's #6: Homecoming

Dear Pierre,

It sure has been a while but I miss this. A part of me only feels like itself when I'm my desk scrabbling some thoughts that I know you will cherish greatly, I hope this letters finds you well...

I am gonna be honest I have thought a lot and the more I think the more confused I become but I feel like I am getting closer and closer to finding my way. I am not weak anymore ( I hope ). I will have fancy words to tell you and more idea to share just wait for.

with Great Love,
Marie.




The moon is beautiful tonight yet still far away, just like you..just like my dreams.

Pierre's #10: Last Words

Dear Marie,

When people talk about good endings in life, they just emphasize on being in a good enough state to notice what's around them and appreciate what they've been through. They wish that by the end, everything would turn out just about right for them to feel satisfied about their whole life.
I never cared about such things, except that I really want to be healthy enough not to be annoying to my children... Our children.
As "Looking for Alaska" (the John Green novel) starts, it talks about how Miles is so fascinated by famous last words that it becomes kind of a hobby to remember such words.
My favorite ones, are those of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as he was in his garden with his wife at the age of 71, he turned to her and said "You are wonderful!" then grasped his chest and died.

Compared to all the magnificent words said by others, his were the most perfect ones because they were the ones that mattered the most in any man's life.
And I know it's not a good thing to think of last moments while we're just starting out on our journey in life, but I want that kind of endings, perhaps it won't be the most spectacular, nor will it be remembered by so many, but I like to think that the last second of a man's life would stretch out for eternity as a reverberation to his last words, along with the his life played back in an infinite loop.
I hope I hear from you soon my dear.
Til then,
your best friend,
Pierre.

Pierre's #9: Tabula Rasa

Dear Marie,

I've been thinking a lot lately about the book that I'm trying to write. Just thinking. I haven't written a single word in so long; I have actually been jumping between new ideas for other stories and actually considering to start over, then again I know that it won't lead to anything because then I won't learn anything new, nor feel like I've produced something, no matter how crappy it is.
It makes me think about a lot of things we do half-way then stop and convince ourselves that "someday" we'll get back to them but never do, things we postpone til forever just because it's easy; just because the idea of "a fresh start" is always beautiful, like a new born with no memory.
In psychology, it is called "Tebula rasa", which means a "blank slate", and it refers to the idea that newborns have no knowledge. Everything starts from scratch.
It reflects a lot of what's inside of all of us, how much we tend to get rid of all the mistakes and wrong attempts that we made our entire lives, just so that we can redo them "correctly".

Things shouldn't be that way. No one should consider what they do as drafts of an eventual perfect version. No one should ever think of their lives as a notebook where you get to tear a paper off every time you mess things up, because then, you won't learn how to be a better version of yourself, then you'll end up making more mistakes than you would've expected, and allow yourself to tear too many papers and eventually run out of them...
Mistakes are a beautiful thing. They are what makes life what it is. Like an unusual splash of colors in a painting that can evoke so many things inside you, or an unusual melody that can trigger feelings that you never thought you could feel.
I heard a saying once: "We like people for their qualities, but it's their imperfections that make us love them". I think everyone can relate to that.
My dear Marie,
Don't ever think of the things you do as mistakes or think that you've wasted time doing something in vain. Everything that you do is for a reason, whether you know that reason or not, and every bit of what you do will always be part of you, so embrace it.
Til I hear from you again,
Yours,
Pierre.

Marie's #5: About Sharing

Dear Pierre,

I was absent again, but my absence this time was because I got stuck in a somewhat isolated place on some very heavy rainy days. but I enjoyed it anyway and I can’t tell you how much I would have loved to share it with you…

..How much I want to share everything with you.

It really amazes me sometimes, the thought that every single human on earth needs one partner to share some and maybe all of his life with. Those small details that not even your parents paid attention to and the silly dreams and plans you’d never thought you could spit out, all become so important and special when it comes to that one specific person.

 

I really love the fact that between every single idea that crosses my mind and executing it there is a tiny little step called “telling you” that I’m pretty sure means so much to both of us, and deeper than its meaning I think it helped me so much break out of my shell, from the fear of “ what is the world going to think about this” because after it I will have my partner by my side and the rest of the world’s opinion won’t really matter that much.

I know this letter isn’t much but I gotta dwell on so many ideas to share with you in the coming rest of our lives.

With true love,

Marie.

 

Pierre's #8: Pastel

Dear Marie,

As I was trying to find some good music on YouTube, I came across an old song, one of my favorites by Radiohead. It's called "Fake Plastic Trees".
The song, like not so many other ones that I really love, makes me think of a life I have always dreamt of since I was a kid, a world with an eternal pastel sunset, a soft breeze and an utter feeling of serenity.
Sometimes I'd wish that somewhere in an unknown afterlife, there would be a heaven where you get to ask for anything you want, and I'd get to ask to live in that world.

I also get that feeling when riding a bus late in the afternoon, or at home while lying down after a long tiring day. I'd forget about whatever trouble that's been going on my mind and just ponder on the details of such place, without even imagining myself in it.
Maybe all these places that I always imagine only exist in my mind, and I will only get to ask for them in a beautiful afterlife, but that doesn't matter, because the mere thought is enough to keep me optimistic about so much in life.
My dear Marie, maybe someday we'll run into places and moments in life together, moments that, to some people, might seem like hard times and misfortunes, moments where we don't need anything but our love and our way of enjoying things to make unforgettable memories.
I like to believe that a lot, and I hope you do as well.

Til then,
Your best friend,
Pierre.

P.S.: Some songs to listen to: Home - Resonance / Porter Robinson - Goodbye to a World

[Picture Credit: K. Mendes]

Pierre's # 7: Fragile Human Nature

Dear Marie,

Thinking of how long it's been since we last met often makes me want to hide under the blanket and roll myself up in a ball of "missing you" because of how vulnerable I feel without your presence, then I start wishing that time would accelerate to a point where I can hold you and feel the time freezing.
And even though I know deep down that we'll make it through everything, the thought that we'll face a long period of seeing each other every once in a century overwhelms me most of the time; it makes me think of how, in the face of every single obstacle or hard decision, we tend to complicate things and whine inside like babies, and end up having a much bigger issues than we really have.
All it takes is a few seconds of reasonable thinking to figure out that life is full of such obstacles, and we only make a big deal out of them when we really care about something, which makes us anxious and frustrated, sometimes scared and eventually feeling like we're on the verge of having a nervous breakdown.

None of the "problems" we face is ever what it seems to be. We, under the complex masks of ego and pride, are no more than fragile bits of stardust.
If we choose to see the bright side, then the bright side is what we'll get.
That's what I'll believe in, and that's how I'm going to see things from now on.

With all the love in the world,
Your best friend,
Pierre.

[Photo credit:  Christoffer Relander ]

Marie's #4: Between Greatness and Great Greatness.

Dear Pierre,

That talk about great greatness and how some exceptional people were able to make their  name last in history can really shape your mind as a teenager.

I remember when I first read about the life of Jean-Jacque Rousseau, at that time I really didn’t know anything about life but that book and the way that man lived his life affected me so much.

He was one of the greatest thinkers off all time, his ideas and work helped shape the world and its societies and his name lasted for centuries but what I fell in love with the most was the bravery he had to make the choices he made, how he sacrificed his happiness and well being for the sake of a greater purpose.

So as the dreamy girl that I am I believed so much that this was the kind of life that I would love to have, that It really doesn’t matter whether I’m happy or lonely as long as I could be another one who changed the world, I admired that quote that said “pain is the best teacher, but no one wants to be his student” I believed so much that I’m going to be that student, that I’m so ready for it , because of course anything to learn from the best of teachers.

But as I look back to it now, the somewhat adult me likes to see how extreme that was, I mean that’s what adulthood is for: “ rationalizing everything”; and happiness isn’t really so bad after all especially once you really get to know the difference between it and misery. Which also takes my attention to those who chose their loved ones over power and settled for peace and value, who maybe could only change one small life and will probably never be able to reach the international level of greatness, aren’t they great in their own little world ?

I’m not sure whether I was too dreamy or I’m too afraid now but between this and that and like most things in life I would like to believe that what I aspire to be is now somewhere in the middle of  it all.

Till we meet again my dear Pierre, please take good care of yourself !

Marie.

Pierre's #6: Japanese Love

Dear Marie,

I’ve always admired Japanese culture as a whole, whether it comes to traditions, language, habits, folklore or lifestyle, everything about it is really unique.

One of many things that really gets me though is how the Japanese people treat emotions as something sacred, especially when it comes to love.

Like in English and probably every other language on earth, there’s the “I like you” as something to express that a person has a sort of affection towards another, whether it’s a simple friendship, or two people newly dating; and there’s the much more meaningful “I love you” as something to express a greatly deeper affection between close friends, family members, a couple, etc.

But in Japan they don’t just use equivalents to “like” and “love”; they actually have “suki” for “I like you” in early stages of a relationship, and there’s “daisuki” which is used to express love in most situations. But the strongest word for love, which is kind of the equivalent of “I love you” in English between a couple in love is “aishiteru”.

From what I understand, “aishiteru”, derived from “Ai” which stands for “love”, doesn’t just mean “I love you”, nor do they use it often.

“Aishiteru” means a huge deal of deep and true love and respect towards someone; it is a word that is rarely used in very emotional and private situations, a word that means that a person is unconditionally and irreversibly in love, the kind of love that a lot of people fantasize about, and not so many get to experience.

That somehow makes it a sacred word. Almost holy.

It’s just another way the whole Japanese culture amazes me, because indeed human emotions and close relationships should be sacred things, something to really cherish and put effort into.

My dearest,

Till we someday live together and be able to discuss everything without boundaries and be able to say such deep words,

Your eternal life companion,

Pierre.

Marie's #3: The Second Year of a Relationship

Dear Pierre,

During these last few years I have seen so many of friends get in and out of relationships, some of them were serious, and some weren’t really.

The people who never dreamt of a nice forever don’t really matter, but those who thought themselves to be madly in love, to be the match made in heaven, are what confuses me because literally most of them went on separate roads around their fourth year of being together.

It’s natural that they feel devastated at some point. I mean remembering the butterflies that ate your stomach up on those first months, seeing that the happiness you thought you’ve finally found has long disappeared…

Yeah…

So why did it disappear? Did the fire that they ignited inside of them burn too much and did what all fires do? Turn everything to ash? I’d reckon that, but really why do they become so intolerant of each other after one thousand and some more days.

Because we humans live 365 on loop; Sure we grow up and some events happen but we still have that “this time last year”, so as the first 365 days go heavenly and smoothly, the second ones begin to tremble after long enough, and not hard enough for anyone to notice then the third become plain and the forth indifferent.

I really think that that second year of the relationship is the crossroad to either lasting or fading, and how we live that same day for the second time with the person we hold as the most important can show us which road we can take. So in order for the fire to keep burning we must keep feeding it, to hold on to the dream of a everlasting flame we need to invest much of ourselves into it.

I thought this was perfect time to remind you and myself that this dreamy floating island of ours needs a real and solid basis and it’s only up to us to go down and work on it.

With much love,

Marie.