When the horror recedes and the world resumes its normal shape, you cannot forget it. You have seen what is "really" there, the empty horror that exists when the consoling illusion of our mundane experience is stripped away, so you can never respond to the world in quite the same way again."from Coleridge: Like one, that on a lonesome road Doth walk in fear and dread, And having once turned round walks on, And turns no more his head; Because he knows, a frightful fiend Doth close behind him tread .Karen Armstrong
About This Quote
The quote is true. After a traumatic experience, such as a mass murder or disaster, people cannot shake the feeling that there is something lurking in the shadows. They walk on edge for weeks and months after such events, trying to avoid areas where they might encounter evil. But when the horror recedes and the world resumes its normal shape, you cannot forget it. You have seen what is "really" there, the empty horror that exists when the consoling illusion of our mundane experience is stripped away , so you can never respond to the world in quite the same way again.
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