La Eternidad
Finding The Fountain of Youth
Immortality – the thing almost everybody wants to have in any possible way; the only thing that can give us the assurance that we can do all the things we want to do, go to places we want to go, while still having to keep our youth and strength, and that there are always second chances; the second word that we can associate with the words “age doesn’t matter” next to love; the thing everybody wants to have but can’t. Immortality. Yes, there is immortality –
if you know how to get to Hogwarts in London and drink the Elixir of Life, or
if you personally know a vampire (preferably as hot as the Salvatore brothers) and ask him to bite you just enough to have his venom in your system and gentle enough to not kill you, or
if you’re one of the gods living in Mount Olympus. Or
if you find the Fountain of Youth, if it exists.
And if ever I find myself waking up one morning, having this painful desire to have immortality – for real – and packing my bags to go on a pilgrimage to look for the Fountain of Youth, and say, after months of travel and weird adventure, I successfully found it: I might have second thoughts. See, even though the thought of immortality and infinite experiences and youth are tempting and beautiful, I still would find myself thinking whether it’s really what I want. Yes, having the time in my hands and travelling wherever I want to and reading every existing books are the things that I want to have. But if I really open my eyes and consider everything that I might give up just to have immortality, I’d rather walk away from the Fountain and go back to bed and catch some good sleep.
As what I’ve read in fictions, immortality isn’t exciting and fun all the time. It’s only exciting and fun when you don’t want to look and smell like an old man, or when you utterly love the song “Forever Young” to the point that you want to literally incorporate it in your life, or when you think vampires are cool. But imagine living everyday – going through high school and college again and again; graduating every four or five years and still going back to school after that; moving in to different places because your neighbors can’t know that you’re this freaky human that doesn’t age and doesn’t get wrinkles; leaving things behind; watching the people you love and know become old and weak and decay; seeing people come and go in front of your eyes; witnessing your children become older than you; and going through all these over and over again, knowing that you can’t do anything about it.
I remember this particular story about immortality, “Escape Clause”, written by Rod Serling from his
Stories from the Twilight Zone collection. In the story, there was this guy who was so afraid of getting sick that he became a hypochondriac. He didn’t understand why people didn’t get to live a hundred or two hundred more years. It was just a bit more years anyway, he would say. Then came the devil, bringing with him immortality and invincibility for the man. The man and the devil came up with an agreement: the man will have eternal life, and should he not need it anymore, all he would do is call for the devil and take the “escape clause”. And so the man lived and didn’t get a scratch or a bruise from the accidents he encountered. But he was bored. There was no thrill. He didn’t get hurt, and that wasn’t fun. He came up with the idea of jumping from the top floor of the building to test this power he had. But instead, it was his wife who fell and died. He called the police and told them he killed his wife. He acquitted himself because he wanted to try the electric chair. He had said, “all they’d get from it is an electric bill!” He wouldn’t die by electrocution. During trials, he’d always say that he was guilty, never did he deny the murder. But his lawyer was a good lawyer. In the end, he was sentenced to lifetime imprisonment. Goodness, he would spend his lifetime – his lifetime that was
endless – behind bars! Imagine what it was like for him. This was definitely not the news he wanted to get. That moment, he realized how much of a greedy and idiotic man he was. And on last resort, he called for the devil and took the escape clause. He died, and his soul was taken by the devil.
The story only showed us that, at first, when you’re immortal, you think you have the time in your hands, that everything is within reach, that you can rule the world anytime you want without worrying about the inevitable fleeting days. Time is unlimited. Time is infinite.
You are infinite. You can make time bow down in front of you. But in the end, you and time would switch places – time will have
you in its hands. You become weary, lonely, bored, lost, wandering – and to top it all, this sadness is excruciatingly endless. When you’re undying, everything inside you also is undying – even pain and suffering. Time will become your master, and you will become its slave, instead of the other way around.
Immortality is something I wouldn’t want to have because of the fact that I want to get old, and experience pleasure and pain, rejoices and regrets, triumphs and trials, life and death. I’d rather just read about immortality in fictions and die peacefully fulfilled than live forever in an infinite stretch of time, an endless road to nowhere, with no definite source of happiness and no place I can truly call a home.
Notes:The Fountain of Youth is a legendary spring that reputedly restores the youth of anyone who drinks of its waters. Tales of such a fountain have been recounted across the world for thousands of years, appearing in writings by Herodotus, the Alexander romance, and the stories of Prester John.
©The Twilight Zone is an American television anthology series created by Rod Serling. Each episode (156 in the original series) is a mixture of self-contained drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist. A popular and critical success, it introduced many Americans to serious science fiction and abstract ideas through television and also through a wide variety of Twilight Zone literature.
©This essay was my paper for my Literature homework. I just thought of sharing this because... well, I have nothing worth exciting to share.
a woeful & chaotic diary since 071409
La Eternidad
Finding The Fountain of Youth
Immortality – the thing almost everybody wants to have in any possible way; the only thing that can give us the assurance that we can do all the things we want to do, go to places we want to go, while still having to keep our youth and strength, and that there are always second chances; the second word that we can associate with the words “age doesn’t matter” next to love; the thing everybody wants to have but can’t. Immortality. Yes, there is immortality –
if you know how to get to Hogwarts in London and drink the Elixir of Life, or
if you personally know a vampire (preferably as hot as the Salvatore brothers) and ask him to bite you just enough to have his venom in your system and gentle enough to not kill you, or
if you’re one of the gods living in Mount Olympus. Or
if you find the Fountain of Youth, if it exists.
And if ever I find myself waking up one morning, having this painful desire to have immortality – for real – and packing my bags to go on a pilgrimage to look for the Fountain of Youth, and say, after months of travel and weird adventure, I successfully found it: I might have second thoughts. See, even though the thought of immortality and infinite experiences and youth are tempting and beautiful, I still would find myself thinking whether it’s really what I want. Yes, having the time in my hands and travelling wherever I want to and reading every existing books are the things that I want to have. But if I really open my eyes and consider everything that I might give up just to have immortality, I’d rather walk away from the Fountain and go back to bed and catch some good sleep.
As what I’ve read in fictions, immortality isn’t exciting and fun all the time. It’s only exciting and fun when you don’t want to look and smell like an old man, or when you utterly love the song “Forever Young” to the point that you want to literally incorporate it in your life, or when you think vampires are cool. But imagine living everyday – going through high school and college again and again; graduating every four or five years and still going back to school after that; moving in to different places because your neighbors can’t know that you’re this freaky human that doesn’t age and doesn’t get wrinkles; leaving things behind; watching the people you love and know become old and weak and decay; seeing people come and go in front of your eyes; witnessing your children become older than you; and going through all these over and over again, knowing that you can’t do anything about it.
I remember this particular story about immortality, “Escape Clause”, written by Rod Serling from his
Stories from the Twilight Zone collection. In the story, there was this guy who was so afraid of getting sick that he became a hypochondriac. He didn’t understand why people didn’t get to live a hundred or two hundred more years. It was just a bit more years anyway, he would say. Then came the devil, bringing with him immortality and invincibility for the man. The man and the devil came up with an agreement: the man will have eternal life, and should he not need it anymore, all he would do is call for the devil and take the “escape clause”. And so the man lived and didn’t get a scratch or a bruise from the accidents he encountered. But he was bored. There was no thrill. He didn’t get hurt, and that wasn’t fun. He came up with the idea of jumping from the top floor of the building to test this power he had. But instead, it was his wife who fell and died. He called the police and told them he killed his wife. He acquitted himself because he wanted to try the electric chair. He had said, “all they’d get from it is an electric bill!” He wouldn’t die by electrocution. During trials, he’d always say that he was guilty, never did he deny the murder. But his lawyer was a good lawyer. In the end, he was sentenced to lifetime imprisonment. Goodness, he would spend his lifetime – his lifetime that was
endless – behind bars! Imagine what it was like for him. This was definitely not the news he wanted to get. That moment, he realized how much of a greedy and idiotic man he was. And on last resort, he called for the devil and took the escape clause. He died, and his soul was taken by the devil.
The story only showed us that, at first, when you’re immortal, you think you have the time in your hands, that everything is within reach, that you can rule the world anytime you want without worrying about the inevitable fleeting days. Time is unlimited. Time is infinite.
You are infinite. You can make time bow down in front of you. But in the end, you and time would switch places – time will have
you in its hands. You become weary, lonely, bored, lost, wandering – and to top it all, this sadness is excruciatingly endless. When you’re undying, everything inside you also is undying – even pain and suffering. Time will become your master, and you will become its slave, instead of the other way around.
Immortality is something I wouldn’t want to have because of the fact that I want to get old, and experience pleasure and pain, rejoices and regrets, triumphs and trials, life and death. I’d rather just read about immortality in fictions and die peacefully fulfilled than live forever in an infinite stretch of time, an endless road to nowhere, with no definite source of happiness and no place I can truly call a home.
Notes:The Fountain of Youth is a legendary spring that reputedly restores the youth of anyone who drinks of its waters. Tales of such a fountain have been recounted across the world for thousands of years, appearing in writings by Herodotus, the Alexander romance, and the stories of Prester John.
©The Twilight Zone is an American television anthology series created by Rod Serling. Each episode (156 in the original series) is a mixture of self-contained drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist. A popular and critical success, it introduced many Americans to serious science fiction and abstract ideas through television and also through a wide variety of Twilight Zone literature.
©This essay was my paper for my Literature homework. I just thought of sharing this because... well, I have nothing worth exciting to share.
a woeful & chaotic diary since 071409
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Already several months had passed, and I am missing
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry more and more each fleeting day. There are just some things in life that we can never forget – especially that something that had given us knowledge, skills, strong relationships and a second home. I am glad that everything in the magical world is now at peace, since Voldemort (yes, I can now say his name; no need to be afraid) had died. I had secretly admired Tom Marvolo Riddle (Voldemort’s birth name) though, because of his intelligence, passion and love for magic. Wasn’t he very clever to think of and conjure his seven
Horcruxes to preserve his life, or form a clan of
Death Eaters who were very loyal to him and would give up their lives just for him to succeed? Not everybody can acquire that much loyalty from people these days. I do not, however, admire him for the way he had carried out all of his plans. He had a good agenda, his means just weren’t morally right. But he still is one of the darkest wizards of all time… and let’s leave it that way.
Oh, for all those who are baffled of what I’m saying here and who the heck I am, my name is
Christine Faye Ordas, and I am an alumnus of Hogwarts. I came from the bronze-and-blue-clad house of the smart ass witch Rowena Ravenclaw and her dictum
“Wit beyond measure is a man’s greatest treasure.” And yes, I know the wonderful Luna Lovegood (she’s such a darling) and Harry Potter’s first crush Cho Chang. I had just left Hogwarts last May. Right now I am trying to pursue a career in magical researches, literature and writing. It’s my dream to inscribe intellectual books, publish and sell them in
Flourish and Blotts for the future Hogwarts students’ use. I am also planning to credibly write for the
Daily Prophet, the magical world’s primary news bulletin. And of course, I will be very much honored to contribute to Mr. Xenophilius Lovegood’s
Quibbler (hence, my interest in magical researches). I have always found the Lovegoods a fascinating family, and I bet working with and for them will be very exciting. Or maybe, in Merlin’s beard’s time, I can write legends and bedtime stories like the famous – and wickedly brilliant – Beedle the Bard.
And that’s how my life goes these days. I am utterly missing my old school, my friends, the Great Hall, the bronze eagle knocker just outside the Ravenclaw common room, Professor Flitwick (the head of our house), Hogsmeade, the Quidditch matches (although I didn’t actually play for the house), the moving portraits, the castle ghosts, the pumpkins on Halloween, the giant pine trees on Christmas, Rubeus Hagrid’s (Hogwarts’ gamekeeper) tea and treacle fudge – even the crabby Argus Filch (Hogwarts’ caretaker) I miss. Maybe I can visit the school grounds sometimes and see how the magical world’s been doing since Voldemort died (I’ve been spending my months in the muggle world, you see). I’ve heard everybody’s been moving on and starting all over again; the ministry is back on work under Kingsley Shacklebolt; and Harry Potter’s scar haven’t been disturbing him since.
All is well, indeed.
And because of that, we should celebrate and drink firewhisky! Oh, I still don’t drink firewhisky; I can take butterbeer or tea or pumpkin juice – just not firewhisky, please.
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