In a recent interview on Fox News, Tim Scott (a Senator from South Carolina) gave an interesting – and enlightening – analogy regarding perspective. The conversation with host, Trey Gowdy, revolved around the pain of historic race relations in the US. More specifically, what weight should be given to the pain of historic events vs. the prospect of a brighter future?
In that interview, Tim Scott talked about driving. He said that when your car is going down the road, you spend a lot more time looking out the windshield than you do in the rearview mirror. He then noted that there is a reason that the windshield is big and the rearview mirror – in comparison – small.
His point?
History should inform us – and we should look at it every now and then – but our focus should be through the windshield into a future full of potential – made possible, in part, by the obstacles overcome in the past.
Living in the past doesn’t deliver happiness. No matter what your skin color or where you’re from, that’s good advice for life.
If you’ve never driven the highways of Paris, you should — at least once. It’s an experience you’ll never forget.
So, on our first trip to Paris, my wife decided that we were going to rent a car and see the country. So, we picked up the car.
No, not the race car in the picture… 🙂
A little, standard-shift Citron – and started winding our way through downtown Paris out toward the highway. Fortunately, the French were very helpful in blowing their horns to indicate whenever I made a driving mistake. 🙂
But if getting out to the highway was stressful, it was peanuts compared to what awaited me leaving Paris. Seven lanes going in each direction – and all hovering near 90 MPH.
But that still wasn’t the worst of it.
Between each of those lanes of speeding vehicles – riding the dotted lines – was a near-equal number of motorcyclists trying their best to be the next organ donor.
It was madness.
Driving through the chaos (and surrounded by the mayhem) I had to make up my mind.
What was I going to focus on?
The speed? The cars? The semi-trucks? The motorcycles whizzing by so close I could almost smell their riders’ cologne?
I decided that if we were going to get out of this insanity alive, I was going to have to focus on one thing.
Don’t run into the car in front of you.
Whatever you do Jason, don’t hit the car in front of you.
I couldn’t spend time worrying about the car behind us or the motorcycles riding the dotted line inches from my side mirrors.
There wasn’t time.
I had to pick my hat — choose what was most important.
Avoiding hitting someone else had to take priority over whether the other drivers were going to be the end of me. I soon learned that worrying about the cars behind was like living in the past.
So, with Debbie turning various shades of pale beside me and vehicles whirling around me like they were caught up in a polar vortex, I kept my attention out the windshield ahead of me and waited for the city traffic to finally dissipate.
We finally did make it out into the countryside, and the drive through some of the quaint towns was lovely.
Here’s the point.
If you’re going to make it through this hectic, fast-paced life in one piece, and be happy, you have to keep your eyes forward. You can’t move forward if you are living in the past. Sure, glance into the past for fond memories and instructive moments, but keep looking ahead.
The people that spend their time looking in the rearview are the ones that crash hard. Similarly in life, living in the past doesn’t deliver happiness.
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Until next time, have a happy day.