August 08, 2006
Shit, it happened again.There is this word, other than 'unconstructive', that is really unconstructive. The word is 'retrospect'. In the way it would normally be used, it is 'in retrospect'.
Don't you think it's a word of much shame? Like, only seeing the light in a situation in retrospect, or... to have chosen another course of action in retrospect, or... to have chosen an alternative response to a predicament in retrospect. You get my drift. It's just, what a shame that all the retrospectives happen only in the retrospect.
And what use is it to know something in retrospect? What use is it to realise something in retrospect? Lessons. That's what we all talk about. Right? To take lessons in retrospect and to, hopefully, learn from it.
When I was doing literature in secondary school, there was something about how it's better to see a house being destroyed so that we can focus on rebuilding, than to see the devastating storm coming and knowing you could do nothing but wait for it to be over.
But rebuilding takes time. Sure, it beats just feeling your way in a tunnel, not knowing when the storm will be over. But, rebuilding has its own weariness too. And we all know that something that is rebuilt can never really quite be the same as the previous. So, it had better be even better than the original. Better so that it's really worth the effort of rebuilding it. Better so that if the next storm comes, you know you have a better chance of surviving it, man, soul and house intact.
So, retrospective is important. But you have to just get over the phase in which you just feel completely f-up and think what's the fucking use of a word as unconstructive as 'retrospect'.
Did I just lose you there?
Posted by 杏 cy （Jancy） at 11:55