The principal theme of “Lost Property” is the notion that an individual’s current feelings, his personality traits and her current behaviour may often be shaped by the past events the individual has been through. The theme suggests that an individual’s past may continue to affect his/her present until that individual becomes aware of the connection between his past and present and makes a decision to break the cycle. The pic below shows a number of child refugees arriving in Germany in 1946. How on earth did they come to terms with this experience of displacement? How did this experience affect their lives and, if they had children themselves, did these refugees "infect" their own offspring?
In Monty’s case, his inability to accept his own father for what he was has resulted in a poor relationship with his own son. His wife Ingrid has suffered traumas in the past that result in her inability to shed tears. Peter Lutz’s father was such a powerful figure that all the son can do is try and live in his father’s shoes. "Lost Property" suggests that forgiveness is a powerful tool for breaking the past/present connection so that individuals can move on.
Yes indeed, life sometimes seems less a cabaret and more a steeplechase lottery, where we are all both runners and punters, some of whom fall at the first fence or never even get that far and luck plays as big a role as skill, much like disease and history.
Posted by: Christopher Goddard | 02/18/2018 at 08:03 AM
Interesting point Chris and fits nicely with a book I am currently reading - "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari. He does not support the deterministic view of History. We will rarely (if ever) know why, for example, Constantine chose Christianity over a myriad of other monotheistic religions. Most of History defies explanation. We know it happened but we don't know why. Events are haphazard stuff that we try and make sense of. But nothing was inevitable
Posted by: robert john goddard | 02/18/2018 at 09:59 AM