Just exactly what consciousness is has yet to be adequately explained. Endless reams filled by bright minds are dedicated to the subject; some get close, but in the end the actual definition is as elusive as that of time. Consciousness and time are two elemental particles of reality that defy concise explanation because they are made up only of themselves.
A.E. Herting’s Lamentation is a brief, yet well taken exploration into the interaction of consciousness and time. Maybe the first scene is the true one; or it could be the second. Obviously, unless you are a bad person, you root for the second vignette to be the right one. Yet maybe it doesn’t matter. Maybe it is what you experience that matters, even if it is of your own construction.
Q: This reads as a deeply personal piece. What, or who, inspired you to write it?
Q: You ended it at the right spot. Was it difficult to avoid saying more, possibly too much?
A. Elizabeth’s responses:
Q: This reads as a deeply personal piece. What, or who inspired you to write it?
It was very personal. The day I wrote it, I had just come home from a funeral of the son of a friend who died suddenly at age 13 and the story kind of flowed from there. I’ll never forget, it was February and it was bitterly cold and gray, all the heartbreak and sorrow spilling out into the atmosphere. I’ll never forget it.
Q: You ended it at the right spot. Was it difficult to avoid saying more, possibly too much?
Yes, in trying to compare the brevity of the boy’s life against the full life of the old man. I tried to keep them equally brief-the tapestry of long life versus the irrevocable loss of all possibility and (hopefully) reconciling them in the end.
***
literally stories 
My gratitude to A. Elizabeth for her winning replies to my humble questions. I hope that everyone has a look at Lamentation.
Leila
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The story has an It’s a Wonderful Life vibe and packs much emotion in a few words. The Q&A, as usual, adds to the power of the piece.
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Hi Leila,
Brilliant choice as usual, you keep knocking the Q&A section out the park!
To A. Elizabeth,
I was very interested to read where the inspiration came for this story. Isn’t it weird that when we are in a state of emotion, we might not be able to say much but if we sit in front of laptop words come to us.
It is a bit of a poisoned chalice, you really don’t want to be on the sad side of the emotional spectrum but when the ideas flow then maybe that inspiration can be looked at as a tribute.
Thanks so much ladies.
Hugh
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