In the movie Elizabethtown, the character portrayed by Orlando Bloom calls himself a "collector of last looks." He memorizes the expressions on each person's face as they walk away from him for the last time.
I wish I had that talent. I wish I had some sort of internal alarm, something that alerted me as to when I was seeing someone I would never see again.
It would keep me just a little bit more sane if I could remember your last look. I wish I could recall it. But all I seem to recollect are the looks you gave me long before our final meeting.
There's something tastefully tragic about a lost cause, something so artistically appealing that I can't help but think about you. You are the most disappointing thing that's ever entered my life, and yet, at the same time, you're also the most intriguing.
God, I so want to remember the last face! The last look! But I can't make up memories, can I? I can't recreate the past, no matter how hard I try.
I've made it a goal from this point forward to commit parting expressions to memory. To never forget the way someone's eyes stared at mine before they got into their car, or the way their mouth curved up into a half-smile as we said our goodbyes. There's nothing now that I want more than to hold those images in my heart.
I guess I did learn something from you after all.
15 years ago
2 comments:
If only we knew when we would never see a person again. That would be nice, but at the same time troubling.
What about memorizing the expression of a persons face as they leave and turn into someone who you didn't think they would become? No, they haven't left you in the way of moving away, but when they turn away and then the next day come as a whole different person, someone who you don't know anymore?
That would be just as useful, I think.
For me, the people who have changed might as well have walked out of my life completely. I consider those "last looks," too.
Backstabbing seems to be the latest fashion, and treason is the new black.
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