Why is it that shutting the door on the past and opening the door for the future can be so difficult?
Immediate Disclaimer! I am not suggesting that anyone, anywhere, should ignore what transpired in the past, good or bad - no, not for a single nano second - especially not in the geopolitical sense - we all desperately need to remember the actions of despots, madmen and tyrants and deal with them accordingly.
Seriously, the truth of the old adage "those who fail to remember the past are condemned to repeat it" have been recently ringing loud and clear in my ears on almost a daily basis.
What I mean by my initial statement today applies to the tendency people have to remember dumb or inadvertent actions on their part that have haunted them forever, or at least their lifetimes since the dumb or inadvertent action occurred.
For example, I have a friend who has a friend who cannot let go of an embarrassing moment that transpired over forty years ago - forty years ago!
It was one of those dumb things that awkward teenagers do - this friend-of-a-friend asked a girl out, she accepted, they went on a date, and they ended up both getting arrested for trespassing after they were caught skinny-dipping in a neighboring condo complexes community pool.
Who, during those tender adolescent years (or maybe even as a young adult) hasn't done that exact same thing at least once or twice?
Sure, it was embarrassing then and the girl's parents forbid her from ever seeing the young man in question again, but geez Louise, in the long run it was a no-harm, no-foul event.
Because, you know, security cameras were not so prevalent 40 years ago.
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