Something To Remember

I want to post this in it's (pretty much) entirety and give credit to the author. It might not be a profound statement objectively speaking since it is fairly commonsensical, but it struck a deep chord within me.

So, props go out to Gneiss Guy, who happens to be a genuine, loving, thoughtful soul and an incredible writer. Find him at http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=gneiss_guy


"You can indeed choose how you write your history, or how you write your present situation. I have always lived in a fantasy world, creating my reality to suit me....

"...you choose how you view your past and that I had chosen a decidedly negative view of my own. You remember that view – failure, no fun, screwed up many a time. I still spend a lot of time slipping back there. It’s a familiar place and I gravitate towards it. However...has pushed me to look at things in a different life and I’ve largely rewritten my history or at least how I fared in it...

"Conversations with a good friend have also taught me this – if you like the person you are today, then you can’t be too hard on the path you took because it’s the only way that could get you where you are. I think that’s a really good way to look at your life. Any mistakes that you’ve made or opportunities you’ve missed out on suddenly become stepping stones that you took to get to today.

"There can a downside to this kind of thinking. I spent decades telling myself someday I would be the person I thought I should be. I could conjure an image up in my head and I could make myself believe it would come true. I was riding centuries and writing books and had close friends and was rolling in money and having wild sex. It didn’t come true and it never could have. I think that fantasy life held me back for a long time and it set standards that I could never meet. I was never destined to be a thin, popular, wildly successful stud and seeing New Year after New Year come in without becoming that person drove me deeper and deeper into myself and I labeled myself a failure. It’s hard to see yourself as a failure and then take the baby steps that lead to real change.

"I guess after thinking about it for days, I still don’t know what I’m trying to say. Maybe it’s this -- you can rewrite your past to suit you, but you have to work hard to write your future."

Indeed.