From the Past to the Future - from the Editor
 

During the COVID-induced extended winter break, I’ve had a lot of intriguing conversations with my twin daughters. As college seniors, they’re each contemplating a future that seems exciting and exhilarating, as well as intimidating and scary. You don't have to be in college to identify with those emotions when thinking about what's around the corner.

My recent conversation with Danielle reminded me of the 1993 gem of a film, A Far Off Place, featuring a young Reese Witherspoon as Nonni, the daughter of an African Game Warden. When she and Harry, the young man who is visiting her family with his father, discover their parents have all been murdered by a group of poachers, they manage to avoid that same fate by escaping across the Kalahari Dessert with Nonnie’s Bushman friend Xhabbo. As the three contemplate trekking 2000 miles to reach the safety of Capetown, and Harry considers reversing course as he scans the vast expanse of desert stretching ahead, Xhabbo tells him, “Harry must not look back. This is Harry's future.”

In principle, it’s wise to focus on the future, but there’s also wisdom to be gathered from the past, in life, love and politics. Our history —  our errors as well as our successes — help us steer a truer course forward. When the landscape we must cross to get to the other side of this pandemic seems less than certain, the past provides reassurance that we've overcome strife before, and we will come through this.

So as we spoke, I advised Danielle, “Don’t just look where you’re going, look where you’ve been as well.”

With a grin and her inimitable sense of humor, she responded, “Mom, you sound like one of those magnets.”

I’ll take that as a compliment.