The world is different now than it has ever been. More of my life is in the past than will ever be in the future, so looking back is really most of what is left to me.
I have a lot of good memories. In fact, my novels are mostly about those memories. But there has to be a bit of the bad memories too. There is no story without conflict. No life is lived and learned from if there has been nothing to battle against, nothing to overcome.
I hope we have learned something from the past few months. But experience has told me that we probably haven’t. We didn’t learn hard lessons before… as a species. It is more or less up to the individual to stay away from the pit traps the herd is heading towards.
But as we swiftly approach future troubles, we need to look once or twice into the rear-view mirror.
“More of my life is in the past than will ever be in the future”
That’s a real bitch if your past didn’t turn out so good. I’ve known more than a couple older people who seem to hang onto past wrongs with all the tenacity of a bulldog that has sunk their teeth into a Thanksgiving Day ham.
In my case it is better to let go of large sections of my past. Or at least rewrite the script so well I’ve forgotten it was rewritten.
An important part of hindsight is the ability to close your eyes to certain things. Or put on colored glasses.