On Dead Stars
I'm sure you've heard of dead stars. Well, in case you haven't, they're, well, stars, which are dead. No I'm not being funny here, they are really dead stars, but since they are light years away, we still see their light and believe that they are shining down upon us. This concept was used in a Filipino short story by Paz Marquez Benitez. The story was about a man who lived his life believing that he has let the love of his life slip away. He had a good life, which he never really appreciated, believing that he had let his happpiness slip away in the past. But in the end, when faced with the reality of the woman he thought he loved, he realized that what he really loved was the illusion, not the person. Or more precisely, the memory of that illusion. Many of us live through this illusion. We would always have the man/woman who got away somewhere within us. Some live the rest of their lives pining for this love, so much so that they forget to really live and enj