A commonly heard piece of advice if one is experiencing suffering due to past events is to put it all behind you. a nurse called Carl said that to me in the Day treatment unit once. Sometimes this is harder to put into practice than just a simple rationalisation so we made some different versions of it in the day unit to help us:
child version:
the past is dead. It's had the energy sucked out of it by the energy sucker-fish and that poor little fish got so full of gloopy gloopy old energy that it swam off round the back of the silly rock and spewed it all up again. That's why the past is now all the way down gone...at the bottom of the sea.
mystical version:
The past is gone. We see the cosmic truth of impermanence manifested here also. Yes, all old energy forms simply vanish while the wheel of time turns ever onward. You are safe from it my friend, you are in an eternally self freshening universe where things past are mere shadows of the present, the now, that is the REAL.
Physicist version:
Due to the second law of thermodynamics, order is perpetually decreasing as information decays into white noise and the universe approaches heat-death. The arrow of time moves in the direction of increasing entropy.
Tough version:
It’s all water under the bridge, just get on with it or you get a kick up the backside.
Proustian version:
You must master the past…it is the duty of all artists to accomplish this. Write it all down and include every possible detail you can. Mention reminiscences too, as you dip your rich tea biscuit into your tea, let it all flood a back to you and be overwhelmed with the essence of a past moment. You may suffer, but this is the lot of the artist after all.
Psychobabble version:
Don’t act out, don’t do it. Don’t live in denial, your inner child will guide you. Here are some crayons so you can express whatever comes to mind. See yourself as a dynamic individual with a future not a damaged one with a past.
Stalinist version:
Past, what past ? The party has always existed, that is all you need to know about this so-called past.
Orwellian version
Consult the official diaries from when you were an angst ridden teenager, ignore all that crossing out you did, history is what is written.
Rasputin’s version:
Medicine is the only solution to the past. Start with a small dose of
tranquilliser and build up !
Cyborg version:
The past is made of your hardware and software, if a bug offends thee then debug, remove organic tissue and replace with prostheses.