Pile on the Light!

Earlier this year, my friend Orky passed away unexpectedly and much too young. A few months before that, he gave me some advice that I will always carry with me. I've copy and pasted this directly from his message to me and left all formatting intact. It's long, but worth the read.

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The main point is, move forward and don't dwell on the past. this is easier said than done, because events of the past tend to overshadow the present, and thus mitigate efforts to get over the past. the solution is to accumulate positive memories in order to negate memories of the past.

abstract scenario:imagine an overhead projector (you know, like the ones teachers used in math class in the 1980s)… a surface of light shining upward. this represents the love and happiness that you are given at the beginning of your life.

now imagine every day of your life represented by a thin sheet of plastic that is laid on top of this square of light, and on top of all other sheets of plastic.



a day when nothing good or bad happened would be represented by a transparent sheet that allows most of the light to shine through from beneath.

a day when good things happened, that you remember fondly, emits its own light, augmenting the light that you started with.

a day when bad things happened, that you recall with lingering grief, is represented by an opaque sheet that blocks much of, or all, light beneath it.



events of the recent past tend to affect one's mood on any given day, depending on the intensity of those events. think of the positivity of one's mood represented by the amount of light currently showing.

too many days of grief, followed by more grief, or neutrality (transparency) will yield very little light, regardless of how much light one started with.to recover from a state of grief requires more than an absence of more grief. one needs to pile on several layers of light, or positive memories to counter the shadows of recent negative events.

i realize this is a somewhat simplistic theory, but: PILE ON THE LIGHT.

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Working Overhead Projector by Floorplan ($175L)