Quotes of the Day 36: Missing

Quote 1: "Spartans never die. They're just missing in action." - Carter-A259, Halo: Reach

Quote 2: “You make a life out of what you have, not what you are missing.” - Kate Morton, The Forgotten Garden

Halo: Reach is a first person shooter video game released in September of 2010. The game is the 6th game within the series which takes place in 2552 as you play as one of 6 Spartans super soldiers who make up the elite Noble Six and are trying to defeat the aliens called the Covenants. Halo: Reach was the development team Bungie’s last Halo game as all subsequent games were made by Microsoft. The Noble Six team was made by the United Nations Space Command where you as the player control a new addition to the group and the group is led by Carter-A259 with second in command Catherine-B320. Carter and Catherine are the only members of the original squadron, the Noble Team, with 3 other members making up the Noble Six who are heavy weapons specialist Jorge-052, assault specialist Emile-A239, and marksman Jun-A266. The story continues on with this main cast as they protect humanity from the Covenant.

Carter’s quote reminds us that heroes will never truly leave us. Carter has experienced much loss before the game starts and over the course of the game, tragedy after tragedy continues to befall him and his team as they defend humanity. Heroes will never die so long as they live within our hearts, minds and history. Carter’s quote puts a good spin on it as the heroes who have left us have really just gone missing in action and will return later.

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton is a mystery novel published on July 1sts, 2008. This novel, which is partly based on Morton’s own life, centralizes on the mystery of a 4 year old child who washes up on an Australian wharf in 1913. The novel pays homage to Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden while also exploring themes of loss in life, trust, love, and identity. The story follows Nell, who during her 21st birthday learns that she was adopted after being found at 4 years old on the wharf. The story takes place over a wide span of time as in 1975, Nell travels to England based upon the last clues of her adoptive father after his death which is all connected to a fairytale book she has. Sounds interesting? Well, that’s not all as Nell’s granddaughter goes on a similar journey of self identity in search of the truth after Nell returns despite being thought to be dead 60 years ago. Cassandra, Nell’s granddaughter, finishes this novel in the much more present times of 2005.

The Forgotten Garden’s quote uses the same theme of missingness but flips it around to instead focus on how you have to live your life with what you have instead of what you don’t have. We can’t have everything, but every single thing that we have is here for a reason and should be appreciated. There are always those with less, so we can do our best to live and live well with what we have instead of long for that which we do not.

I hope that today’s quotes helped you find what you have lost, literally or metaphorically. Have a great day everyone!

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