Does your childhood seem distant? [...]
Twenty years ago, yes, but not in this life stage. Because the closer I feel to
the end, the closer I feel to the beginning, as if closing the circle. (To
Charles Dickens – A Tale of Two Cities)
After watching Victor
Erice's film "The Spirit of the Beehive," I was impressed not only by
the symbolism interwoven in the story but also by the scenery and photography.
However, the most striking aspect was the eyes of the child actress Ana Torrent
and the perspective through which she portrayed the world and everything around
her. This brought back memories of my childhood.
Writing on childhood
memories. Why do the distant days of childhood and youth often seem idyllic to
us? Life was easier, but perhaps it was not as joyful as we paint it. It is our
present perspective that casts it in such a light. Could this be because we
often recall the positive aspects of the past while glossing over the negative
ones?
Alternatively, from a
“Schopenhauerian” point of view, this perception can be understood as follows:
the eyes through which we saw the world were the ones we had at that time. Today,
they are different; they have evolved over the course of our lives. At the age
of 9 or 13, our perception of reality was probably different from how we see it
now. Perhaps life was not as wonderful as we remember, but our current
perspective often paints it that way.
At that age,
we did not have the evaluation criteria that we have today. This is understandable,
given our immaturity. Nor did we know the timeline of events on which we based
our experiences.
Although our will as children was not particularly strong, our innate potential to live and learn was considerably greater than it is today. We were in good health, and our needs were generally met. Apart from schoolwork and chores, occasional annoyances, and punishment for misbehavior, our lives were filled with playful activities—playing, reading books, playing soccer, and exploring the world—and everything was new. There were no major concerns because our parents and families ensured our well-being. We did not perceive the world as it truly is; instead, we saw a hopeful aura for the future. We had faith.
Finally, childhood memories move me because Parque de Aeronáutica, where we lived, allowed us to transcend the mundane boundaries of home, street, and school. The “Parque” was a vast and wonderful physical environment for playing and fantasizing.
It is no coincidence that
I recall the lines from the movie La Ronde (Max Ophüls, 1950): “Nous
sommes dans le passé. J’adore le passé. C’est tellement plus
remuant que le présent et tellement plus sûr que l’avenir” (We are
in the past. I
love the past. The past is far more peaceful than the present and much more
reliable than the future).
When we write about the
past, we often perceive it in this manner. As Mario Vargas Llosa aptly
remarked, “Writing is an act of rebellion against reality.”
