Keep Moving Forward

Disney's Meet The Robinsons was one of the first cartoons we ever introduced to our daughter shortly after she was born, and it became one of her favourites. Funny enough, it was the first time I would be seeing it too.

image:disney.com

What caught me initially, was the 'craziness' of the cartoon characters. These guys were not normal people; the Robinsons in the future were definitely not what you'd call a normal family. Then I got emotionally caught up in Lewis' desire to find out why his mother abandoned him. I didn't hit me until after I'd watched it probably a 100 times, that Lewis was also stuck in his past - yearning to find out a truth that was better left buried, why his mother left him at the orphanage.


The character who obviously had it bad for the past was Goob, Lewis' roommate at the orphanage. He blamed Lewis for the sleepless nights he had all those years ago when Lewis was working on his inventions, and those sleepless nights led him to miss the winning catch, and consequently made the team lose the championship. He held on to that blame until it transformed him into an evil, hopeless, and senseless human being. His one desire was to ruin Lewis' future, even though he had no intelligent way of accomplishing it.

Sometimes it feels safe and comfortable to remain in the past. I get to lay the blame on someone else for whatever failure, or rough patch I experienced, which according to me is invariably responsible for my current pathetic state of being.

I just sit and watch as the days go by and keep saying to myself: "if she hadn't done that" , or "if she'd let me know in time," or...you get the idea, an endless blame-heaping episode - which is what Goob did.

It isn't always about something bad though. Sometimes I find myself getting stuck in the glory days. Oh yea, when I was the in-thing, the good times when it was all smooth sailing. Then I hit a couple of stumbling blocks, and instead of stepping over them to move on, I just stay there, reveling in what good moments I had enjoyed, refusing to see further to what could lie ahead of the obstacles before me.

It could also happen like Lewis' story, getting stuck on some event in the past that I believe is pivotal to my future, whereas it is better off behind and buried.

I am gradually realising that if I spend the present thinking up bright ideas and working on them for the future, instead of mulling over the past, my present will actually be enjoyable. It's OK to go back to the past and do a little inventory or progress check, but never linger for too long and don't long for it.

After all, its been said that our eyes are in front so that we keep moving forward.

The future is alive today, so live in the present!