File:Never looking back again.jpg

"Never looking back again", by Erik Pevernagie, oil on canvas, 88 × 66 cm

If we take the time to unravel the surreptitious fragments from the past that are veiled in the muddle and jumble of our memory, we may single out the essentials for the present that might be best shots for the future.

The dialectic case of the 'things we do,' the 'things we have done,' and the 'things we are going to do' has been haunting present and earlier generations. For ages, one confronted the people with the soul-searching question of how should we interpret the past and how do we move forward.

Linguistic sayings that we inherited from century to century have given us a lot of good advice. Many people have even enjoyed moral guidance and have learned to rely on themselves: "Do what is right and let come what come may," "Do well and fear not," "Do well and dread no shame."

All those wordings start from the principle that we are the sole judge to evaluate what is right and what is wrong, as long as we act according to the local laws and the regulations of the time.

So we need not be afraid of reprisals; we need not be ashamed when we "do things well." So, "do your best and do the rest," "do well and have well," "do the likeliest and do the best."

If somehow a few things in the past have not been done correctly, we should not be ashamed of our failures. We have to learn from our mistakes. If not, we are doomed to repeat them again and again.

If anyhow, we want to move forward, we must look at a new horizon that lies ahead. By writing our proper intrinsic script and producing our own story, we needn't ever look back.

Phenomenon: Looking back, Past, Future