On Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Try watching the movie. Or if you have...wonderful isn’t it? The mind forgets but the heart, the feeling will always remain. The risk of erasing a part of your memory to forget the hurt, the pain is also wiping out your memory of love and laughter. It’s your loss either way, for there is no love without pain.

During the procedure of erasing Joel’s memory was emotional. Even in sleep he remembers all of the love, the pain, the embarrassment, the craziness. Those were the best days of his life. The times when he didn’t need drugs to get high. The time he felt most alive. He felt all those emotions possible. He felt how it is to love and be loved.

How happy is the blameless Vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd.
- Alexander Pope's "Eloisa to Abelard"

"Blessed are the forgetful: for they shall have done with their stupidities too."
- Nietsche's Beyond Good and Evil, Part VII

It was a rollercoaster ride going through that process. But the best part of the movie was waking up. When Joel woke up he felt empty, like something was missing…a big hole in his brain. More weird scenes from the characters followed until they find out what was going on…what they did and how they did it. Then there was the hallway scene…the scene where they knew that the bad things that happened between them may just repeat itself if they continued seeing each other. A life-changing scene. A decision has to be made. Risk it all. Risk everything...even the hurt and pain.

-------------------- “What do we do?” --------------------

-------------------- “Enjoy it!” --------------------

“Joel follows her into the hallway and asks her to wait, not knowing what to do. Clementine tells Joel that their relationship is bound to fail, based on what they now know about it. However, Joel just shrugs and says “Okay” (indicating that he doesn’t care about what may happen in the future).

For a brief moment, Clementine looks bewildered by Joel’s response, but then she quickly nods her head. Both of them begin to laugh over the absurdity of the situation.” (Wikipedia)

Beautiful. Pure bliss.