The End As The Beginning

Why is it that when we are reading a book, we would flip back to the last chapter and read it so we'd know how it ends? The same with movies...we go to Blockbuster, rent a movie and then fast forward it closer to the end. Are we so worried that a book or a movie might not end as we expected? If that is the case, then why aren't books, and movies for that matter, all about endings? Or better yet, why don't authors and film directors just put the ending as the first part? Then we don't have to waste a lot of time waiting for the conclusion. Aren't we a little bit interested in the rest of the story? Do we not want to know how it unfolds? Do we not care so much about the struggles of the main characters to get to the end?

We have all been spoon-fed fairy tales that always end up "happily ever after". We have come to expect that in almost all aspects of our lives. Most specially with romantic relationships. We wait for Prince Charming to come into our lives, sweep us off our feet, put that tiara on our head (or the glass slipper) and off to the castle we go, riding a white horse with some sappy love song playing in the background.

But what if you knew your relationship will end? That you will have to go on your own way after a certain time? What if you knew the ending of your own story? Would we even try to do something to change the supposed ending? That Prince Charming really has another goal in life and you're not (and will never be) a part of it? Do we not want the story to be told as it happens? Do we tell the Prince to take a hike after showing interest in and kindness to him (and vice versa)? And what about the stuff that happens before the end? Are we going to pretend that they didn't happen? Do we, then, just brush the memories off to one side and not care about them? Should we just ignore the emotions involved in creating the story?

One of the best theme songs from a movie went like this:

...You have no right to ask me how I feel,
You have no right to treat me so unkind,
Someday I might find myself looking in your eyes,
But for now, we'll go on living
Separate lives...

Each of our relationships has a story to tell, good or bad. Whether we choose to tell the end first is up to us. It is also our choice to change the direction of the story and alter the ending. We can make it sad or we can have a happy, hopeful ending.