Overheard at Table Two: Proust and the Only True Paradise

Marcel Proust once wrote, “… the only true paradise is always the paradise we have lost.”

 

                But what if that’s not true?

                At least not entirely?

 

                What if the one true paradise is the one that we have never seen?

                The one that we wish for, the one we yearn for? the one that we see in our dreams?

 

                What if the one true paradise is the spouse that we have created in our minds?

                The house that we have pieced together out of photos of houses in magazines, or the insides of

                houses that we have seen?

                The rolling ocean when we live in a land-locked state?

                The open fields when we are living in the urban jungle?

 

The paradise that we have lost is the one that we can never reclaim, but the one that we have not yet obtained, that paradise is always perfect, always true.