Movin' on

Throughout the story Tim O’Brien tells us “I’m forty-three years old, and a writer, and the war has been over for a long while.” His inability to let go of the war, the things he experienced and the people he knew there and lost, reminds me of all the soldiers that lost themselves in the Vietnam War; those that came back and were never the same again. These soldiers were not able to leave the war in the past and focus on the present and the future.  O’Brien knows that writing about the war conjures up memories and sadness that he would sometimes rather forget but he can’t. He says, “…But the thing about remembering is that you don’t forget. You take your material where you find it, which is in your life, at the intersection of past and present.” No matter where these soldiers turn in their post war lives there are always reminders of what really happened while they were at war. 

Later, Tim O’Brien goes on to say “I’m Forty-three years old, and the war occurred half a lifetime ago, and yet the remembering makes it now. And sometimes remembering will lead to a story, which makes it forever.” For these men remembering is like reliving the loss of their innocence, their old lives and dreams.

Collecting Your Jar of Hearts by Christina Perri is a song about a person that keeps coming back and breaking her heart. If you think of the war as a metaphor for the person it is easy to see how remembering and reliving of the war steals a little bit more of their soul than the time before. In so many ways war leaves scars, tears love apart, and leaves its soldiers to live on as ghostly reminders of that war. Think about this as you read the lyrics below and listen to the song and the melodramatic tone to the music.  

"No I can’t take one more step towards you
Cause all that’s waiting is regret
And don’t you know I’m not your ghost anymore
You lost the love I loved the most

I learned to live half alive
And now you want me one more time

And who do you think you are
Running around leaving scars
Collecting your jar of hearts
And tearing love apart
You’re gonna catch a cold
From the ice inside your soul
So don’t come back for me
Who do you think you are"