Last week I stumbled across a teaser for a Friends reunion show called "The One After the 10 Year Break". It took me about 30 seconds to figure out it was a hoax that had been kicking around the internet for awhile, enraging fans of the show who'd like to see the cast get back together again. And as a Friends fan, I agreed. On the heels of the spectacular Veronica Mars movie, I could totally be convinced that a 10 year Friends reunion might be fun. But it has me thinking about endings. And how they seem harder to come by than ever before. And how I seem to be struggling, more than ever, to let things go when they end.
But maybe it's not just me. Maybe we're all struggling with not knowing what happens next. Social media sites like Twitter and Facebook allow us to keep up with our ex's latest escapades, no matter how painful or unhealthy it might be. Authors write mullti-book series that go on and on forever, seemingly unable to just End. The. Damn. Story. And even when the story does end, they sometimes write it all over again from another character's perspective. Thanks to Netflix, television shows can be watched and re-watched. And the ones that are cancelled live a whole new life in fan fiction. Can it ever just be over?
I worry that we're losing our ability to live with the uncertainty of not knowing what happens next. That with the ever-present availability of information and our ability to communicate effortlessly with each other, we've lost the bittersweet experience of knowing something is really, truly over. Can we be satisfied with not knowing? I'd like to try. Because in retrospect, I think the best moments in my life are the ones that can't be recreated over and over again. And I think some part of me likes the pain of wanting something that I can't have. And wondering about the what-ifs and the what-might-have-beens. Maybe all good things really must come to an end, or else they are no longer good.
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