Honesty and its practices are what really matter not the epoch that one lives in!
By Stanley Collymore
There are those who with the fast approaching climax of the
year 2017 will cheerfully or else unconcernedly say we
should celebrate its end and whatever good things,
if any of substance, that it did individually bring
to those who were fortunate enough to receive
them, but then, in accordance, with all this
immediately and happily move on with
our lives to welcoming in the rapidly
advancing New Year of 2018. All that, I suspect, with
the tactless prospect of readily discarding the old,
on the one hand, and on the other unrestrainedly
embracing the new one. The underpinning to
that being that the past is exactly that, and
consequently there’s absolutely nothing
which can be done about changing an
conclusive fact. So why spend time,
energy and even the possibility of
using precious money looking
back at, far less so essaying
in a revisionist fashion to
construe or even worse
totally modify what
the past honestly represents?
In other words, what are
firmly recognized and
largely categorically
unalterable facts!
One way, I guess, of looking at it if superficiality is all
that the unconcerned or thoughtless observer has in
mind. But while for certain it’s positively clear
and incontestably true that the past itself can
not or shouldn’t be unfastened from what
has formerly gone on, it’s even so from
every authentic and prescient-minded
perspective and, at best, quite naïve
in the process also, to effectively dismiss the past
as a faraway irrelevance with no significant or
any germane influence on the present, and
far less so on the impending future. For
to arrogantly think that while inanely
supposing that there isn’t anything
constructive to be achieved from
examining the past and learning
from errors which were made
there, whether purposefully,
inadvertently or foolishly,
is not only foolhardy in
name but moreover at
worst, clearly insane.
And while specific characteristics of 2017 might
basically, and on a personal level, be overall
very comforting, and predominantly so
from a psychological assessment;
however, in fancifully or even
earnestly overlooking, ignoring or calculatingly
discarding the unadulterated truth about 2017
is forthrightly purely wishful thinking and,
in that context alone, doesn’t augur well
in any situation thereof - for lessons
not wisely learnt and all that sort
of thing– for the inauguration
of the New Year that’s 2018.
Stanley V. Collymore
21 December 2017.
It’s quite easy to understand why and likewise how one can be sympathetic towards persons who, specifically through no fault of their own, have been subjected to immense and intense traumatic experiences that they in turn wish to and have concertedly done everything in their power to erase from their consciousness as best they can, because they’re too psychologically caught up in the painful experiences of it all and accordingly don’t wish to dwell upon them.
And while I’m not suggesting for a single moment that such an enterprise shouldn’t be taken by such individuals there is nevertheless a vast world of difference between endeavouring to intentionally blot out something quite unpleasant that happened to one’s self on the one hand, while on the other obdurately pretending, for whatever reason, that it never happened. All the more so since the real process of healing is to courageously, however difficult that might be, effectively deal with and hopefully finally come to terms with that particular unpleasantness in one’s life however agonizingly painful a task that might be.
Since without objectively doing so a proper and definitive closure, however delusion one may consider that they’ve attained that objective, will in all truthfulness never be entirely attained and in the attendant circumstances only serve as a festering sore which at any time could very well spontaneously break out again.
It’s the same state of affairs in everyday life and at whatever level that one can seriously and realistically think of, from essentially every day and seemingly mundane instances to crucial and potentially earth-shattering situations. For whichever way that it’s independently looked at the past does even so have a significant bearing on both the present and the future whether that is sagaciously and practically accepted or not. And whether or not that impact is for the common good of humanity universally or conversely for its utter destruction will, of course, depend considerably on the wisdom, or lack of it, of all those involved.
But, in my opinion, randomly making New Year’s resolutions which essentially any idiot can do without those involved being obliged to take full cognizance of what has earlier gone on in the previous year isn’t just purblind ignorance but also definitively the height of insanity.
