FORGETTING OR REMEMBERING

(Images from history.com)

Which would you rather have? A binful of forgetfulness or a trainful of remembrances?


Give me the bin, any time!


I love throwing useless things away, so that holds true for tons of memories which I'd rather bury in  a faraway dumpsite:


Memory of my high school crush who never even took a glance at me. Tapon!


A job interview experience aptly titled "embarrassing"---shoot!


The fact that mathematics is my archenemy. Away with that too.


Insecurity about my nose---like a plane taking off the runway, said my brother Dan. To the bin!


Failed efforts---throw them all in.


Forget it all---the pain, the failure, the regret, someone's offense. It's just baggage which can slow you down. You don't want to walk like a directionless dumb ass (I meant mule.).


No wonder Philippians 3:13 encourages us to "Forget what is behind and strain toward what is ahead."


But there are just too many good things to remember. How could one forget his or her:


First date, first kiss, first love.


First job, first paycheck, first purchase and the euphoria of your new-found freedom in that first paycheck.


The day you said "I do," the time you felt your yet unseen baby kicking within, and your experiencing happy tremors at the prospect of a grandkid coming.


The way you panted, groaned, croaked, groped, slaved and almost burned yourself out to get to where you are now.


It's the day after July 4 and I happened to have watched a comprehensive documentary on the history of the United States, "America: The Story of Us"---probably the best, most graphic and down-to-believable-details-portrayal of  any nation's history that I've ever seen.


A most riveting remembrance of the country's Christian foundation, its fight for freedom, its people's can-do and pioneering spirit which led to shaping the United States into the world's most powerful nation.


It also highlights what many may consider forgettable blights in its proud existence like the slave trade and impact of slavery on the black population, the civil war and the 9/11 tragedy. 


The fourth of July independence day celebration has come and gone but I sense that for a lot of Americans, it was just another page flipping off the calendar.


Many may have visited the Arlington cemetery, hopefully to reflect on their heroes' sacrifices and not just to watch the solemn changing of the guards ceremony. Fireworks worked the night. Houses proudly festooned the American flag.


Talk of being patriotic---a lot of Americans are!


But how one wished the ceremonies and traditions didn't gloss over the lessons of history. Because that documentary I watched surely jogged my mind about why America became a great nation; and why it's imploding today---as writer Joel Rosenberg, one of their own, puts it, because America has placed God out of the equation and followed its god-is-money and i'm-master-of-my-destiny bandwagon.


We have a lot to learn from history. Be they a nation's history or our own.


We definitely can't---shouldn't---be burdened or stopped on our tracks by our failures. But victories should neither keep us in nirvana land, so much so that we become fat, comfortable and smug---thinking we don't need anyone else because we made it through our own blood, sweat and tears.


Maybe the issue is not in forgeting or remembering, but in learning even as we remember both the good and the bad episodes.


And in realizing that apart from the One who created, and therefore knows and enables us, any attempt at success or making it big in life or even nationhood, is folly---"meaningless, a going against the wind," says Solomon, the richest man who ever lived.