Mrs.Sonali-tell me-Liu Yifei

The dawn of ancient Greek culture bore the Odyssey, whose lead Odysseus created the greatest nostalgic. He left for Trojan War and stayed there for ten years. However, his return was thwarted by the gods’ intrigues.

“During the twenty years of Odysseus’ absence, the people of Ithaca retained many recollections of him but never felt nostalgia for him. Whereas Odysseus did suffer nostalgia, and remembered almost nothing.”

                                  -<ignorance>, Milan Kundera

Ruminating the past memories to nausea merely to maintain the limited recollections is pitiful. But one who has no past to recall is inevitably subjected to nostalgia, which does not evoke recollections, but absorb its victim into suffering and nothing else.

Odysseus made a sacrifice. Instead of the infinite life of ease, delights and the unknown adventure, he chose the finite life of the known. He simply longed for his homeland, which was bonded with him irreplaceably and unchangeably like blood tie. To maintain the bond, he may have fabricated all scenes to apotheosis with imagination since he had no recollections to follow. Obviously the apotheosis in his imagination could not be the truth that satisfied his desire. Maybe at the first time Odysseus was not searching for home, but some audiences to whom he could tell his story.

I believe everyone has his irreplaceable person who they believe will accompany them for the entire life. At the same time, because of the irreplaceable situation, the fear of losing the person is also worrisome. Someone say the intimacy is a vein shading the truth and the more close you are with one person, you are more likely to believe your perfect imagine to that person rather than his true traits. Maybe it is a kind of self-protection which prevent from finding the negative and unacceptable aspects so that the irreplaceable and perfect situation can continue.

After Odysseus’ “great” return, to the people who he knew nothing about and only knew about him before he left the war. They kept garrulous about things that have happened in Ithaca during his absence. But none of them realized the treasure Odysseus gave up for his return, the adventures and wandering outside Ithaca, which he could retrieve only by telling them. Truth made him disappointed. Even though the miss to the country was true, that feeling could only exist in the past or in his memory. Even though the fact that he was born on the land bonded an irreplaceable tie between Odysseus and Ithaca, the fact may do not represent any emotional link anymore.

My thought is in a mess now. I still have questions about, without the ultimate bond- the blood tie, whether friendships and loves can be stable like family; or blood tie is nothing but a fact, the shared efforts in maintaining is what matters. However, I know more about why listening means so much in maintaining a relationship. Odysseus waited for the citizen’s word “tell me”, which was the only thing they never mentioned. Tell the people you care “tell me”, which we sometimes have no idea how powerful these two words mean.