Never Stop Moving Forward!

An anti-romanticism, anti-past/anti-nostalgia view of thinking about life:

Why do we romanticize the past?

Kyoto, 2016
Kyoto, 2016

My theory:

We romanticize the past, because it feels ‘safer’ (the past isn’t changing and in flux). Whereas present-day, life is a lot more ‘scary’/difficult/and in flux.

I also think that there is something inherent in human nature that we ‘Photoshop’ out negative memories from the past.

A lot of us romanticize our childhoods, but we forget how much we were bullied, and how much it sucked being a child without money (I far prefer being an adult, with the power of money!)

Fear

#cindyproject
#cindyproject 2019

Furthermore, I think retreating to the past is due to fear– we are afraid of our present-day situation and our future prospects. Thus we retreat to the past.

The past is immutable, which makes it more ‘safe’ and less ‘scary’/dangerous.

But it seems in life, the only way we can live is FORWARD– to take on the risks of reality, and to strive to BECOME MORE, to RISK MORE, and to CREATE MORE!

selfie airplane bathroom

Don’t look backwards

Don’t look too much backwards and in the past. It seems the best strategy is to be forgetful; forgetful of (both) the good and the past, and to let this purposeful forgetfulness drive you forward to accomplish more, do more, and not to be held back by the shackles of the past.