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.

Author’s Remarks:

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.