Speaker 1: Forget it? Why worry about the past? Hugging all sorrows
to your bosom? What to do with them? Don't poison
your life? Pain brings experience, learning your lesson how to
get rid of a gloomy thought, throw it away, forget it.
One can often get some useful lesson from the slang
and current phrases of the day. There is something particularly
attractive to me about slang and the pat phrases that
are passed along from one to another on the streets.
Many of these phrases condense, in a few words, certain
practical truths that one could use as a basis for
a sermon, anesthy or even a book. They are the
practical experiences of the people, crystallized in a catchy phrase.
The phrase which I hear so frequently on the street,
just now, forget it seems to me to contain much
practical common sense, and if people would put it into practice,
there would be many more brighter faces, many more lighter hearts.
What's the use, anyhow, of carrying around a long face
or a heavy heart just because away back in the
past something went wrong with us, or even if we
went wrong ourselves, and most of us have I have.
I know, what's the use forget it? Of course, you
will not forget the experiences of the past, and you
do not want to. That's one of the things we
are living for gaining experience. When we have once really
learned a through experience, we never forget it. It is
a part of us. But why bother about the memory
of the pain, the mortification, the slip up, the heart ache,
the wounded feelings, the misplaced confidence, the thing done in
the wrong way, the chance you let slip by, the folly,
the sin, the misery that might have bins and all
the rest. Oh, what's the use forget it? I say,
forget it? If one is to worry about all the
things that went wrong, all the things that didn't come
right in the past. If he has to take out
each memory every day, and, after carefully duzzing it off,
fondle and caress it and hug it close to his bosom.
If he has to raise up these ghosts from the past,
these phantoms of long ago, these musty eating things, why
he will have no time for the affairs of to day.
He will lose all the joy of the now, or
the pleasure of life, of the moment, all the interest
in the things of to day. Oh, dear dear, what's
the use forget it? Forget it? Some people are not
happy unless they have some old, faded sorrow hunged up
close to their bosoms, And they feel guilty if they
happen to smile and forget the old thing for even
a moment. Oh, how they do gloat over their own
vamped unhappiness. How they enjoy the relieving of the pains
and sorrows, mistakes and ignorance of years gone by. How
they love to hold the fox to their sides and
let it eat out their heart. These people are really
happy in the unhappiness, and life would not be worth
living if they were deprived of their pet sorrows. Of course,
if these people are really happy because they are unhappy,
I have no objection. Every man or woman has the
right to pursue happiness in his or her own way,
and I suppose that that is as good a way
as any other, and I should not find fault if
somebody else's way is different from mine. But doesn't it
seem like a pity to see people wasting their time, energy, thoughts,
and life on these old sorrows? If they must think
of the past. Why not think of the bright things
that came into their lives, and instead of the dark ones,
think of the moments of happiness, not of the moments
of sorrow. Don't make a tomb of your mind. Don't
let that particular painful experience poison your present life. Don't
do it. Don't do it. What's the use forget it?
Every bit of pain that has happened you has brought
its experience to you. You are better, wiser, and broader
for it. Look at it in that way, and you
will cease to mourn and wail and wring your hands
over the fact that in the past you have done
those things which you ought not to have done, and
have left undone those things which you ought to have done. Nonsense.
You have gained the experience and know better now. If
you were placed back in the same old position and
lacked the experience that you have gained by just such things,
you would do the same old thing over again, and
in the same old way. You couldn't help it, because
you would be the same old person. What you would
like to do would be to be placed back in
the same position and face the same old temptation or
problem but you would want to take with you the
experience you have gained by your former mistake. You want
the cake and the penny at the same time. You
want the experience without the pain. Oh, yes you do, Now,
that's just what you want. I have been through it
myself and know all about it. You have gained the experience.
Be satisfied. Someday you will need that experience and will
be glad you have it, and will see that it
was worth all you have paid for it. No, you
don't see it that way. Well, maybe you haven't had
enough of it, haven't learned your lesson yet. If that
is the case, some of these days the law will
drop you back into the pot until you're well done.
The law is not satisfied with underdone people. Oh you're
making a big mistake. Forget it. Forget it. The people
who carry these old things around with them generally get
themselves into the mental attitude that draws other things of
the same sort to them. Misery likes company, and a
miserable thought also likes companionship, and almost always manages to
attract some other miserable thing to it to keep it
from being lonesome. The only way to get rid of
a thought of this kind is to forget it. Now.
If you have some pet thing that is g knowing
out your vitals, is corroding your heart, is poisoning your mind,
take it out and look at it for the lost time.
Give it a lost, long, lingering gaze, Kiss it goodbye,
Weep over it if you like, for this is the
last you will see of it. Then throw open the
window of your mind and pitch it out into the
outer darkness. Forget it.