Column: thoughts on the past through The Past

Recently, I saw the Iranian/French movie, The Past at the Frontenac. some of its echoes have remained with me. It looks at the intersection of different lives, how each is affected differently by the past, and how the past is interpreted differently by each character, sometimes in radically different ways. As Dylan siad, “the past is close behind.”

Out of the blue, I received a letter, an actual letter, from an old friend with whom i had tried a few times to get in touch. He wanted to catch up a bit, but mostly to recall old times, perhaps to stimulate old thoughts, old memories as he approaches retirement age. Off and on since 9/11, i get in the mood to try to contact folks from the past, as I do not like the thought of friends slipping away as easily as they seem to. Facebook may have a part in that, as high school folks faithfully report when another classmate a has passed on. Some of the best kindnesses I have done involved telling some folks how their lives have had an impact on mine. I do so, in part, as I have already missed telling too many people the same things, as they have died before I made the effort.

Yes, family is the crucible of our lives, but family does do its best to maintain at least some contact. Some of our best and worst moments are shared with friends as much, if not more, than family.

To some degree, the past is always with us. to some extent, the past helps to shape who we are. The trick is how do we weave the past into our present and let some of it remain open to a new future. Nostalgia is a real temptation, as we see the glory days in a mist memory, but not the future. At a talk recently, I heard a local author moon over the gangster ridden East St Louis youth as a near nirvana. Baby Boomer mewl about how the music of their youth was the best.We hear it in politics constantly, as the right wing moons over the alleged of a past that exists only in the dreams of ideology.

On the other hand, we say move on, let the past remain in the past, especially to the grieving,  and words to that effect. Yet, trauma continues ot haunt people into reliving the past so that it will not seep away from direct impact on the present. We have victims of PTSD, especially veterans, seeking healing from living nightmares of the past.

The Bible insists that we are not caught in a time loop; we do not have to ceaselessly repeat the past. “I do a new thing”- or I make all things new. While faith is often accused of maintaining or even creating guilt, at its best it seeks to relinquish the hold of hte past through forgiveness, as in “the past is finished and gone.”

It seems tha tthe constant tension in forging and shaping identity is learning hwo to weave the shards of the past into a present and an alluring future.We may strive to be alert and alive to the present moment. We, with Jefferson, may prefer” the dreams of the future” more than dwelling on the past. Just this week, I officiated at a funeral service for a man who made his life on the river. Time flow along, but it also flows through us. Memories can be repressed or burnished, and the future rarely matches our plans for it. Maybe that’s why I still go back to the hymn, God of our Lives.