I have said this to you over & over & over, but if something is worth saying, it is worth saying over & over & over.
We live our life inside our head. What goes on in there determines how we live what we do. Recently I have regretted some major decisions I made in the past few years. My regret is massive. I wish I hadn’t done what I did. I go down that path once every few months, sometimes a few times in a few days. If only I hadn’t made that decision. My life would be so different now. I should have thought harder. I should have… I should have… And then a quotation pops into my mind: One can ride nowhere in the carriages of the past. That is so succinct, so true. It is ridiculous to waste time thinking about what would have been if I had not. One can ride nowhere in the carriages of the past. That carriage is no longer available. Thinking about what would have been if I had not…is useless. It a waste of time. What happened, happened. Move on. You did that, now what.
Another example. I am badly overweight. In the past five years I’ve eaten too much, exercised too little. I used to be thin, fast, healthy. I am growing old, I am fat, my back is a problem, I recently pinched a nerve, a sciatic nerve. I should eat less. I wish I were younger. Then I remember a quotation I read: If a man of sixty eats only a piece of toast for lunch, he can do everything a man of thirty can do.
Of course it is almost impossible to eat nothing all day but a piece of toast for lunch, but the quotation pointed to a great truth. When I ate very, very little, I felt, at thirty, at forty, at fifty, that I hadn’t lost a step. I was as fit, as fast, as healthy, as I was at twenty or thirty, perhaps even fitter. I was fat in my twenties, lost weight in my early thirties, and kept that weight off for twenty five years. And I was a heck of a tennis player. I played twice a day. I was a speed demon on the court. I was terrifically healthy. If a man of sixty eats only a piece of bread for lunch, he can do all that a man of thirty can do.
We live life inside our head. I read quotations voraciously. Quotations, for me, are the wisdom of the world encapsulated into few witty, wise, words -- and these few words are easy to remember: I can store them in my head for use later on, when I need those words to shape my life. One can ride nowhere in the carriages of…. When those words pop into my mind I stop thinking about what I should have done in the past. That was in the past. The past cannot be changed. that’s gone, irretrievable, unchangeable. Now, what should I do. My pinched sciatic nerve is driving me nuts: it seems a permanent injury. I will never be the same, fast & fluid on the tennis court, and it happened, my pinched nerve, my back problems, because I am old, fat, overweight. I wish I could stop growing old. If a man of sixty eats only a piece of toast for lunch.
Our life is lead inside our heads. If we can fill that cavity with the right thoughts, the right words, we can change the life we lead. I quickly stop thinking about the past when the quotation “We can ride nowhere…” I am on a diet now “If a man of sixty…” These thoughts are shaping, changing my life. No regrets, please. Focus on what you can do. You can change the past, change the present problems, if you focus on what you should do in the present & the future. I’ve said it over & over & over: quotations have changed my life.
Copyright © 2004 Henry Morgenstein