Interesting headline in the paper this morning. “In the past five years, at least six Americans have been shot by dogs”. I thought it important that you all know that. I won’t say any more about it. I suspect I might go somewhere from which place it might be tough to come back from.
Last week, October 21 to be exact, was the date that Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and Doctor Brown (Christopher Lloyd) visited in the much acclaimed movie Back to the Future Part ll. The movie was produced in 1989 and followed the first Back to the Future movie, shot in 1985, where Marty McFly traveled back in time to 1955. Some interesting plot lines, to say the least, but totally useless except to get one’s imagination going.
As I heard some of the thoughts of various people about this rather significant or perhaps insignificant date, I was rather intrigued about some of the ideas put forward by some. One Winnipeg radio stations wondered whether people, given the opportunity, would prefer to travel back in time or to travel to the future.
That got me thinking. I know I have often times voiced regrets over events of the past. Curious whether I could go back and change these. Which ones would I change? And if I could change the events I wanted would my life have turned out better? The answer to that is clearly yes, if we lived in a perfect world. But we don’t. I cannot remember having heard anyone ever say that they wouldn’t change a thing given the chance. So all of us have certain life events that we would change if we could, or at a minimum, forget.
How about getting a glimpse into the future? If you imagine paying a visit to 2041 what do you see? That is 26 years from now. With the way things have changed since 1989 and keep changing at a staggering pace the possibilities are endless. When I take the time to think back to my parents’ childhood I am awestruck by the changes that have happened. It seems virtually impossible that these changes and the pace of these changes can continue. And yet they seem too. The future sometimes scares me. I often times imagine the challenges that my kids and grandkids will have as the world around them keeps changing. Then again I suspect our grandparents and parents had similar concerns.
After all this thinking about the past and the future I came to the conclusion that the present is what I should focus on. The past has shaped and molded who I am. I have had some struggles in the past and have learned valuable life lessons from those struggles. Someone suggested to me that had I not had the experiences I had I would not be as effective today with the work I do. Then again perhaps I would now be a professional golfer. . . . there I go. Only wishful thinking, I think.
So I am going to call this movie Back to Now. A story where I don’t relive the past but enjoy the memories of an interesting life. A story where I don’t have to worry about the future because today has enough challenges of its own. What happened yesterday cannot be undone. What may happen tomorrow is outside of my control. That is my story and I am sticking to it. Even if dogs are shooting people. Make it a good one.
“Scars remind us where we've been. They don't have to dictate where we're going”
David Rossi
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