LJIDW-LPF Week 2: "My Mount Rushmore"

[daisysparrow]

I've never been particularly impressed by architecture.

Buildings should be functional. Clever features are clever features and of course they have their place, but to me, fancy stonework and so forth is largely a waste of time and effort.

One earthquake and either way, you're still looking at a pile of bricks.

But that's a house.

Even in a pile of bricks, you can have a home.

Even people who make significant contributions to a society, ones who get a building future pile of stones named after them, will all be forgotten after a while.

It's a hard fact, but the truth is that all of us will only ever be important to a few people. Even in our own families, our memories will likely be gone within three or four generations. Which is fine. If we have loved well in the time that we have, then we have lived well. A full home, even amongst a pile of bricks, is happy.

Hard not to have it, though.

Friends are great, we can feel satisfied with them for up to a few hours at a time. Religious/Spiritual practices can bring peace and joy amongst the darkest of times. But it still hurts to pull the duvet over our heads at night without a shoulder to rest that head on. It's still a fight to contain the jealousy when our (married, younger) sisters are heavily pregnant and getting full time care of their step-kids. Or to remember that it's not actually our baby to invest all of our hopes in. To not throw all of our neediness at someone on a first date, because we know from bitter experience that loneliness + loneliness =/= happiness, if there's nothing else to go with it, even when the loneliness is oh so very strong!

And it's hard. We try not to let it, but it drains us. We lose relationships when someone's life takes a turn into these family adventures and we're no longer in a similar stage of life. Or when we try to ask them to fill roles in our lives that overstep the boundaries that would otherwise be in place. Not completely, necessarily, but it's still not going through the journey of live together. We don't have other relationships building us up that they do. We try to stop it, but we become filled with misery. And then no one wants to see us anymore anyway. And the misery is weird, because it's like acid, so it dissolves and empties us. Nothing left. No heart, hardly, and not much personality either. No future without any hope, no legacy.

We're just an empty shell.

A stone house.

One earthquake away from crumbling.

Comments

[bleodswean]

*hugs* You did a great job taking a larger metaphor and focusing it on a very personal experience. Loneliness is an epidemic I wish we could cure.

[daisysparrow]

*hugs* thanks

[kehlen.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

[daisysparrow]

*hugs* thanks

[bsgsix]

*hugs* I love the use of metaphor with the prompt. Well-written and compelling.

[daisysparrow]

*hugs*

thank you, thank you

[jenwithapen]

Oh my goodness! Wow! I love this SO much!! There's a lyricism here. This wending road, but it all leads back to the same thing.

I don't know if it was intended, but I really liked the use of the phrases like "it was hard," especially in relationship to this topic. It made it feel like Rushmore was even more symbolic!

I think, all the time, and have sometimes even upset friends by considering our humanity in terms of our longevity. There will be a time when the human race, as we exist now, will no longer. I think there will always be some kind of human-whatever-hybrid, but... I think as a civilization, we're pretty doomed (not in like a Biblical sense, but more a scientific one =)). Anyway, I loved this for that reason, too. There's an underlying thread of nihilism in this. Not all understand, but I think I do!

[daisysparrow]

wow, thanks!

[nayanawrites]

I Read this twice ... because the first time I read it quite a lot of it pricked me. And then I read it again and there was a sense of melancholy - the bitter realisation of some home truths.

Life as we know it is always at risk of crumbling ... a plain but harsh truth.

Love how this was written.

[daisysparrow]

Thank you, and I'm sorry it's upset you. *hug* ?

[the_eternal_overthinker]

Some powerful writing there which makes you ponder. Good take on the prompt. I didn't expect it to go and dwell into the darkness and it did work for me.

[daisysparrow]

thank you, thank you

[fausts_dream]

Very thoughtful and nicely executed.

[daisysparrow]

thank you kindly

[rayaso]

So powerful and so well written. A great use of the prompt as metaphor.

[daisysparrow]

thank you, thank you

[bewize]

Loneliness + Loneliness =/= Happiness - Truer words were never written.

Houses crumbles. People die. Nations fall. All true - but the memories of happier times, love shared with others, it cushions the hardness.

Godspeed on this journey.

[daisysparrow]

Ah, I'm sorry you know the truth of this. But that is an excellent point. And thanks.

[halfshellvenus]

I liked the metaphors in here quite a bit, for the grand buildings that become brick just as do the homes that matter more to us.

Loneliness is SO hard to cope with. I've been there, and those feelings still come to me in recurring nightmares. Getting out and doing, trying new things and meeting new people helps. Sometimes, if that keeps being a battle, a larger change of venue makes a difference. A different city, a different job or hobby. Keep loving and hoping, and chances are good you will someday be found.

*hugs* and all good wishes.

[daisysparrow]

thank you so much *hug*

[dmousey]

Dark, and lyrical. This is deep. Thank you for this well written bit of a thinker! ✌😊

[daisysparrow]

Oh wow, what a compliment! Thank you!

[flipflop_diva]

I could really relate to a lot of this. It pretty much sums up the me of 5 years ago. And even now, it's hard not to let loneliness creep in.

Very well written. And I hope you continue standing despite everything <33

[daisysparrow]

thank you, love!

[murielle]

And so easy to give into because fighting takes everything you have. Yes! Well done!

*Hugs*

[daisysparrow]

thanks :)