Proust: True paradises are paradises lost

“Yes: if, owing to the work of oblivion, the returning memory can throw no bridge, form no connecting link between itself and the present minute, if it remains in the context of its own place and date, if it keeps its distance, its isolation in the hollow of a valley or upon the highest peak of a mountain summit, for this very reason it causes us suddenly to breathe new air, an air which is new precisely because we have breathed it in the past, that purer air which the poets have vainly tried to situate in paradise and which could induce so profound a sensation of renewal only if it had been breathed before, since true paradises are the paradises we have lost.” – Marcel Proust Through memory and re-experiencing old memories in new contexts, we can visit those paradises again and again, but you can never stay for long. Oblivion makes paradise sweet and possible. Oblivion and paradise are not opposites – both exist, are necessary and make life so complex and sometimes wonderful.