Ashes Of Memories

Ashes. They are everywhere. As long as we walk we will see ashes containing the presence of my son and me. These ashes walk with me, guide me through the road, and make me remember. Remember…

When sitting in front of a chimney I see lumber, pieces of wood exerting heat, due to the fire that, apparently, is crumpling them. Minutes later, the lumber I looked at became ashes, it was only a memory. As I turn the pages of this book, the page before, becomes ashes, a memory. Therefore, I would love to share this quote before it becomes… What? Ashes: “The ashes of the late world carried on the bleak and temporal winds to and fro in the void” (McCarthy, 11). These ashes walk with them through the road, just as the ashes read with me, flying free from the chimney and becoming memories as they try to reach me. Anyways, besides being personified, the ashes are there always, besides them and besides me throughout the book. Well, in my case, due to the fact I read this first fraction of the book in front of a chimney…

Ashes, like living while being dead. They preserve everything. Reminds me of Pompeii, this historic city of the Roman Civilization that collapsed under the ashes of Mount Vesuvius, and nowadays, we can look at it and see the intact streets, the stores, houses, the bodies… These ash-covered city, two thousand years later, stands still, and we can feel like walking back all those years and being present at the moment everything happened…

Then, the ashes leave us a clear hint of the destiny of the earth, “or perhaps the last music on earth called up from out of the ashes of its ruin” (McCarthy 77). These ashes not only maintain a body, but also a memory. Hope, as described through the words of “the last music”, is buried within the ashes that cover the pages of this book. Or memories. Ashes bring back forgotten thoughts, as it happens to the man with his constant flashbacks. But in the end, the last music will revive from ashes. Just as a beautiful phoenix burns in flames and breathes life out of the ashes.