Life is a moving image.

...life is a moving image, unfolding and changing beyond our control. Despite our desire to freeze a moment or to go back into the past and alter events, time presses us forward.

Thus states in the afterword to The Memory Keeper's Daughter. The book was a grounding one, telling a story of how little control we have over ourselves and the world that we live in. Yet at the same time, this story of life's uncontainable chaos was also a story about the things we do have control over, and all the consequences of our momentous decisions.

Selective moments of the book left me in a restless unease, because Edwards is so emotionally vivid. Essentially she tells the story from the perspectives of all parties involved: their reasons, their feelings, and their logic. Told in this matter, everyone's actions and words made sense in their own ways. Many a times I caught myself thinking, "Oh, but s/he did that because..."

Several characters in the book fear life's unpredictability, and despise those who are so sure of everything because it makes them uncomfortable. Part of me stood in constant empathy with these characters, who expect the worst-case scenario all the time. To them--and to me--life is indeed about the difficulties and agonies rooted in its inconsistencies. Too often we turn a blind eye to all the goodness and beauty that prevail around us, and thus fail to take into account that hardship is but only half of life and never its entirety.

These characters are hence balanced by others who revel in life's perpetually changing nature. Needless to say, these characters were always ones to point out that things need not be so sad and difficult all the time. The relationships between these two types of characters varied. Some played off each other so that both parties grew stronger and gained, in the end, a greater and fuller perspective. Others, on the other hand, only made it difficult for each other. Fearing the worst, a reminder that life can only be only underscored worries, while these endless worries simply drove the other to wonder if there was even a joyous future awaiting them.

I was moved. Reading the book gave me a glimpse of things I knew about but did not acknowledge, like the consequences of dwelling in a single event for a prolonged period of time. This thing we call life is so uncontrollable, inconceivable in its greatness, and filled with unpredictability. One can barely call it organized chaos. But to be stuck in one moment that inevitably passes by means we shut out all that is beautifully changing--the key element that truly keeps us going--and we forget how to move on. Emotions are powerful--in its best moments they are uplifting and make us feel alive; and in its worst moments they are simply blinding. And none of this is probably within anyone's control.

So what do we do? We just keep on truckin', don't we? We try not to get too caught up in the details and try to give various forms of sadness a positive spin, so we can stay sane, at peace, and as content as can be. There just isn't an answer out there to the question, "How should we live life?" I mean, I haven't found any and no one that I know has, either. We just do. And it just keeps going. It changes and moves and we change and move with it, sometimes against it, other times completely separate from it. Vivacious time just pushes us along, in its most merciless, graceful way.