PAST, n. That part of Eternity with some small fraction of which we have a slight and regrettable acquaintance. A moving line called the Present parts it from an imaginary period known as the Future. These two grand divisions of Eternity, of which the one is continually effacing the other, are entirely unlike. The one is dark with sorrow and disappointment, the other bright with prosperity and joy. The Past is the region of sobs, the Future is the realm of song. In the one crouches Memory, clad in sackcloth and ashes, mumbling penitential prayer; in the sunshine of the other Hope flies with a free wing, beckoning to temples of success and bowers of ease.
- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
Actually, the future is sunshine and kittens, but you know what he means.
To listen to some of the progressive left, one would think that the Present is filled with unicorns and rainbows and good intentions.
ReplyDeleteWell, unicorns and rainbows painted on an impenetrable brick wall (the "line" referenced by Bierce) being propelled directly in your direction with the sole intention being to destroy...
I 'like' Burt's analogy... More truth than not... sigh
ReplyDeleteEver read a piece you wished you'd written....yeah, like that.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it just means I've gotten old, but I view my past pretty fondly. It's the future that seems like walking halfway down a *long* dark train tunnel and suddenly catching a whiff of diesel.
ReplyDeleteUm, not to bring you back to reality, but I am a part of your past. And remember mutually assured destruction. You tell on me and BOY can I tell on you.
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