JOIN USWhen weighed down by difficulties and disappointments, you are often told to ‘let the dead past bury its dead’. Sound advice, but only to a certain extent. Putting the past completely out of mind can relieve you and help you set your sights on the future, but the past cannot be discounted altogether. This is because each of us is the total sum of our yesterdays. It is clear therefore that our past is always present. There are however encouraging features to this for as Socrates remarked, ‘The unexamined life is not worth living.’
In our day to day living, the past intrudes frequently. When one is ill, the doctor takes a history of the case. This enables him to get closer to the right diagnosis. We celebrate birthdays and all manner of anniversaries because they bring memories that we cherish. The past is a precious treasure-chest containing all that we have experienced, achieved and celebrated.
At any given moment, our identity is a composite of all we have been and done in the past. Some actions brought knowledge and wisdom, but others haunt us because we were not at our best. However, reliving the past and brooding over it can only harm us. What will be of help is sincere regret and it lies in responsible behavior in the here and now. This the only way to free ourselves from the bondage and sorrows of the past for what has happened can never be erased.
Fortunately, the unchanging nature of the past can also be a great blessing and it can be best explained by those who have reached the sunset of their lives. As the psychiatrist, Viktor Frankl has pointed out, "the potentialities to fulfil a meaning (to Life) are affected by the irreversibility of our lives." No one lives forever, but every moment given to us brings us the choice to use it or abuse it. Those who lead productive lives, display integrity and show compassion succeed in transforming what were opportunities into realities. Nobody and nothing can ever rob them of these treasures that their past holds. It is a past that can never die and needs, of course, no burial, for it has the power to yield roses in winter!