Though “Theft” is probably the shortest story we have read it brings up a very valid point. The person who most often cheats you is yourself. The ending line of “I was right not to be afraid of any thief but myself, who will end by leaving me nothing” (p.65) is such a haunting recap of the paragraph on page 64 during which the main character reflects on all of the ways she has stolen from herself. She mentions “journeys she had planned and not made” and the “patient suffering of dying friendships” and the “death of love” as things that have been “twice lost in this landside of remembered losses” that were “her own fault” (p.64). I had never quite imagined it like that before but people do “steal” from themselves all the time. My mother has been wanting to go back East or to Europe for years now, but never has, letting health or money or whatever get in her way. How many times have you felt yourself growing apart from a friend or lover, watching the bridges burn, but just sat idly by? We are constantly letting opportunity slip by us until we are left with nothing. Nothing, save maybe regret. “Theft” warns us against stealing from ourselves.
Tags: Jillian Pagan, Porter, reflective, Theft