One of the most interesting movies I’ve ever seen is Before Sunset (A sequel to Before Sunrise, which is great too by the way). In the movie, Celine has this quote,

Memories are wonderful things, if you don’t have to deal with the past.

I found that very funny when I first heard it in the movie. And I’ve seen that movie many times. I don’t know if it was there in the movie just for fun or if it had a deeper meaning. It sure does for me now.

Like everyone else I know, I have gone through ups and downs throughout my life. And I have a lot of memories of things that I’ve said and done. That is because of my love of archiving things and recording everything. It turns out, however, memories can have a strong hold on you, if you let them take the driver’s seat. Think about it, we only have two kinds of them. Ones that make us feel good (happy, joyous, proud etc) or ones that make us feel bad (sad, angry, anxious etc). If you think about the bad memories, it makes you feel bad, that’s obvious. But almost all the time, thinking about the good ones do the same. It makes you feel sad for not having things/people that you previously had, or just comparing past situations with present ones. It is supposed to make you feel good if you were happy in the past, but it turns to work the other way around.

The way to handle memories then is to try to remain in the present and enjoy them but not for long. The present is all we ever have and there is no reason for us to compare it to the past or the future.