Wonders of Perception

Yesterday, I finished reading The Great Gatsby. As this is known to be Joe's favorite book of all time, I have anticipated and awaited the day that I would read it for a pretty long time now. In fact, I think it must have been 3 years ago that I got very bored one day, and saw the book in Joe's room. I naively decided to read it. That mission lasted only a few minutes, when I realized that I would never understand more than half of the words printed in the book. However, after all of the build up and hype, as I was reading the book, and after I had finished, it was somewhat of a let down.

I did like the book. I simply think that the first five or six chapters moved very slowly, and it seemed as though they were setting the reader up for a big, dramatic ending, when in fact, the last three chapters, though dramatic, yes, went very quickly, and it wasn't very complicated at all. I feel like the book could have been expanded. That being said, there were some themes and morals of the book that are valuable to learn and made the book worth reading. These include the shallowness of the rich, the self-gratifying attitude that was taken throughout the 1920's, and the simple fact that time can not be stopped, no matter how hard a person tries to stop it.

"They had never been closer, nor communicated more profoundly one with another, than when she brushed silent lips against his coat's shoulder or when he touched the end of her fingers, gently, as though she were sleeping."

This quote may be my favorite part of the book. It is the part of the book that stood out to me the most while I was reading it. I love the quote because in it's irony, it suggests that the communication of love is strongest when it is, in fact, silent.

Even though it was written more than 80 years ago, the quote holds true even today. There is no greater feeling than when you are with someone you love and you don't need her to tell you that she loves you. The statement is already there, and you feel it. Not only do you feel it, but you also know that she feels it. The question doesn't even need to be asked... you are so confident in the feeling that you know she's thinking the same thing.

Perception and discernment varies from person to person, but I hope everyone at some point either already has, or sooner or later will perceive this mutual, confidential feeling of love. Any time this percepted love is felt, it is a good day. And I have decided that it is these "good nights" that we live for. These awesome times that are indescribable are the reason we go through relationships.

And one more thing, these good times that we live for will outweigh a bad time any day. For example, on a given Friday night, a couple may experience one of the greatest nights they've ever had. This purely amazing night could then be followed very quickly by a night in which the same couple fights for the entire night. As heated and intense as this fight may become, the memories from the previous night should snap these two people right out of their bickering, and immediately they should remember the love that they have for one another. This is simply because the bad times don't matter as much as the good ones.

"Troubles they may come and go, but good times be the gold. So if the road gets rocky girl, just steady as we go."

-Dave Matthews Band

The trouble is that after getting a taste of this feeling that I have no other way to describe than "perceived love," one may want it all the time. This amazing feeling that we get will not always last within us. In fact, it's usually gone immediately the next morning. We need to accept the fact that we won't always feel like this. It's actually a good thing. If we were all constantly walking around feeling like we were on cloud-9, there would be nowhere to go but down. We need to have a contrast in order to make the good times that much better. In musical terms, volume needs to be low before an impact so that the impact can seem that much louder. The real lesson is to never forget the good times, and never let the bad times effect something negatively, because the bad times will come and go and eventually not hold any significance.