The Burden of Other Days

I woke up this morning with one of those phrases bouncing around in my head.  Sometimes it seems as if my subconscious likes to present things to me in dreams that contain key words or key phrases.  Perhaps my subconscious has a literary bias that makes it lean toward the importance of words.  Who can really say.  Anyway, the phrase I woke up with this morning was -

 

"The burden of other days."

 

It bounced around in my mind as I went through my morning routines and then rode into the office with me, so I thought I would take a few minutes this morning and write about it.

 

I think, what the phrase refers to, is thoughts I have had of late on the transitory nature of the past.  The past is an interesting place in that it feels real, but it isn't.  It was very real in the moment of course, but once the moment has slipped by the past is simply the memory of past events.

 

Sometimes we find ourselves carrying the burden of other days. I think of the burden of other days as unresolved memories. The things we wish we had said or not said.  The things we wish we had done or not done. We cannot really alter the territory of the past and though we carry them we cannot actually take the burden of other days anywhere.  They are simply things we carry in our memory. Many of them, it would probably be best if we simply let them go. A few, perhaps a precious few, have some value - or maybe it is just the shadow of value that leads us to believe that.

 

My conclusion is this.  As you go through the day try not to expend to much effort carrying the burden of other days. Let them go.  We have plenty of burdens to carry today.  Say the things you need to say.  Do the things you need to do.  Then let them go. Set aside the burden of other days.

 

On a note outside of the burden of other days – I had a wonderful weekend.  Sunday especially turned into a beautiful day with sunshine and pointless wandering, including a trip to the Texas Roadhouse in Union City and an excellent filet mignon. I wrapped up the day watching “When Nietzsche Wept”, staying Ben Cross and Armand Assante. It is an excellent movie.  T.R., my love, recommended it to me and we spent some time talking about it (and other things) after the movie was finished. The movie itself contains many complex and intricate observations about life and love. There were points during the movie where I wanted to stop the movie – simply so I could think about what they were discussing.  I am definitely going to watch the movie again.