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View Full Version : I'm thinking of doing a "Past Fast"



catherine
8-10-14, 10:16am
I was driving home from VT yesterday listening to music. I had to forward through some of the old songs because they kind of depressed me--either old associations or just bad vibes.

Then I was thinking about how until about 150 years ago, we didn't have any means of recording except for writing. We had no audio recordings. We had no photographs. The Native Americans thought that photographs were evil--that they stole your soul.

I think they were onto something in a way. Photographs and other recordings steal your soul in that when you are looking at an old picture, or listening to something from your past, you are stealing from the present moment.

As I'm trying to be more awake and aware in my daily life, I think I'm going to go on a 21-day past fast. No looking at old pictures. No watching old TV shows. No listening to old music from some bygone time. I may take down old photographs I have hanging up. And no replaying the past in my mind. If I do, I'm going to try to think of a mantra to bring me back--maybe "now's the time" or "be here now" or something like that.

What do you think?

Sad Eyed Lady
8-10-14, 12:20pm
I kind of did that earlier this year. You may have read my post about purging out my old diaries and journals, then DH and I even got rid of our letters we had written to each other years ago when he was in the military (before we were married). It was heart wrenching in a way ripping apart the old journals, so many years of my life, but it felt good to be free of them too. Most of us carry a lot of negative things and memories from the past and I think the purging of them is helpful. You mentioned listening to old music, I have certain songs that might come on the radio and I have to change the station because of some bad feelings associated with them, so I know what you mean. Good luck on your "past-fast" and I hope it is cleansing for you.

razz
8-10-14, 12:32pm
A past fast is healthy, I think. If something comes to mind from the past, if I cannot be grateful for it, I mentally say "Thanks but no thanks, my life is full right now. Bye."


A friend went travelling with me recently and for the first time. I was amazed that all her conversations were about the past. Finally, I asked why. She said that everything that we experienced on our trip reminded her of the past and she was remembering and talking about those memories not the current experiences. Very difficult to have someone like this as a roomie in travel. She lived in a whole different world.

I puzzled about this for some time afterwards and came to the conclusion that she remembers the past as a highlight compared to her very real present day which is routine, her family is grown and moved away and she has lost her purpose in life. Sad to see.

iris lilies
8-10-14, 2:05pm
OP, I think that if you recognize this in yourself, yes, it's good to get on track for the present.

My problem is the opposite, I live too much in the future. I need to shift that focus and be here now.

Touching on razz's travel experience and my thoughts of the future, I am increasingly annoyed by people who get in my way of enjoying a travel experience while I am in the now; they intrude with their blasted cameras. They are not living in the now but are projecting into the future when they will see their precious photographs.

Snap snap snap go the cameras, getting in my way of seeing things because god forbid that I should walk through a frame. The long eye of a camera takes up so much space in a garden tour. If I really want to see a complete flower bed, I've got to wait for all of the photographers to be done snapping since they are all positioned at 360 degrees around the bed. It's madness.

At the recent lily convention I attended, I was requested to stand in any number of poses with several people, with the groups constantly shifting. I finally got bored with it and walked off. I was also annoyed to be asked to look up at the camera when I was engrossed in a conversation with someone about a particular specimen in the show hall. It's rude and intrusive, go away you photographers! Wait--has this become the daily peeve thread? haha.

catherine
8-10-14, 3:48pm
IL, what you say is so true! Whether it's snapping a picture of your delicious dinner instead of eating it, or snapping pictures of friends instead of conversing with them, or taking pictures of travel experiences instead of.. experiencing them, things definitely got out of hand once cameras found their way onto our phones.

And my own guiltiest moment was when DS had his quick shotgun wedding in a small chapel, and never even had time to hire a videographer, so while they were exchanging vows, instead of being the sentimental Mom clinging to the moment, I was clinging to my iPhone trying to get it all on video. Shame on me.

fidgiegirl
8-10-14, 11:18pm
Very interesting, Catherine! I tend to turn past events over and over and over and over in my mind . . . and over some more . . . until they are mashed to a pulp. I know what you are saying about the icky memories. I burned some old journals in the fire pit a few years ago from past relationships, past obsessions, etc., and it felt good. I like that I no longer have to worry about people finding them when I'm dead. I worried about that, truly - whether I should have or not. I now do not give it a thought. As a result, though, I kind of quit journaling. That wasn't positive, either. Must find a balance. Still working on it.

Photos . . . . oooooooooooh so hard when we have cameras on our pockets all the time. There are millions of photos of my boy already. He's SO. DANG. CUTE. My girlfriend said "They say this is the most photographed generation that no one will ever see" because the photos are digital. Imagine in 200 years (if we're still around, LOL) - if people want to see digital photos from now, will they even be able to? We can't even easily access media from 10 years ago, really . . . unless they are printed out, they won't be accessible to people. Not that a random baby would have any interest to strangers anyway . . .

iris lilies
8-11-14, 12:06am
...Photos . . . . oooooooooooh so hard when we have cameras on our pockets all the time. There are millions of photos of my boy already. He's SO. DANG. CUTE. My girlfriend said "They say this is the most photographed generation that no one will ever see" because the photos are digital. Imagine in 200 years (if we're still around, LOL) - if people want to see digital photos from now, will they even be able to? We can't even easily access media from 10 years ago, really . . . unless they are printed out, they won't be accessible to people. Not that a random baby would have any interest to strangers anyway . . .

Oh there will be systems invented to capture and display these digital images. Has to be, there are too many billions of pixels that society wants to preserve. Don't ask me what those will be, though.

Aroha
8-11-14, 6:03am
Photographs and other recordings steal your soul in that when you are looking at an old picture, or listening to something from your past, you are stealing from the present moment.

...

What do you think?Good point Catherine and I think this is why I am continuing with my major declutter. The past was actually great, I had some good times, as well as some I'd prefer not to have endured. Now I want to spend my future living many more wonderful moments, not reminiscing (or agonising) about the ones that are gone.

Like others here, I have purged journals and things I would hate others to find after I'm gone, and I think it will actually a great relief if all this digital guff is eventually allowed to fade into obscurity. the thought of some of the things being on the internet forever is not really a happy one.

Xmac
8-11-14, 12:01pm
I think this says it nicely:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSgr59PeYZQ

ToomuchStuff
8-12-14, 5:34pm
I didn't realize cavemen, the Sistine Chapel and the Mona Lisa were less then 150 years old.
There have been oral traditions in the form of stories, music etc. But there has also been drawing, painting etc. They are nothing more then tools. Things to remember where we came from, or how to do things, or for what we are aiiming for.
There are those that get enamored with the technology instead of how and why to use it. (take a photo to remember or "frame" an event, verses watching the event through an iPhone) That happens with many things (people have to figure out their values).
I have gotten sentimental and went out driving, windows down (no a/c), radio on all going through one speaker (normally front passenger, since most vehicles I remember the speaker was in the dash), when some song came on the radio (reliving a moment in comparison to where I am now). But there have also been songs I don't listen to or avoid. (old girlfriends, loss of someone, etc) There is a lot of past thrust upon us (by family, history class, etc) It has to be up to us, to decide what/how to make of it. A fast can be a good thing.
I've been waiting for a time that works, for getting over to a freinds when their burn pile is going. I'd like to burn my old yearbooks. I also have some old photographs, that I should offer to a library. There is something personal about them, but they have no value to anyone else in the family and the subject matter is not something I would discuss here (stay out of the politics forum) two fold. Purging can be healthy. So can the way one purges.

I've been envious of a friend who lost everything in a fire.

catherine
8-12-14, 5:45pm
I didn't realize cavemen, the Sistine Chapel and the Mona Lisa were less then 150 years old.


I think art is different than photography when it comes to this type of thing. I agree it's very similar, but art is an interpretation of a visual experience and photography pretty much serves to capture the moment. (yes, yes, there are photographers like Ansel Adams and Annie Leibovitz who are artist-photographers, but the typical snapshot is not art.)

I also realized when listening to the TV while I was working and DH was watching TCM that I really do not like old movies. I think it's almost creepy to see people who are now dead on the screen as if they were Dorian Grey. Maybe this sounds really out there, but I just can't describe it. I find it depressing.


I've been envious of a friend who lost everything in a fire.

My mother lost everything--health, husband, home, all personal belongings--in one year. I never saw her more at peace. In fact, for 18 months she didn't have her memory, so case in point, she really went on a "past fast" and she came out just fine.

catherine
8-13-14, 8:00am
I think this says it nicely:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSgr59PeYZQ

Just got a few minutes to look at this video, Xmac. Very cool. Interesting metaphor of our lives being like a movie, and the present moment being like a frame/scene in the movie.

"The present scene is all there is and it holds everything"

"Radical openness to the present scene."

"You don't 'do' yes [to the present scene] because you 'are' yes."

And you don't look at the movie and say it's wrong or there has been a mistake--the movie is the movie. "If in the present scene there is sadness, fear and doubt, from the perspective of the movie nothing has gone wrong. When you're watching the scene you don't have any sense that the movie itself is broken...it hasn't gone wrong. You don't tell the movie manager to come quick, there's something wrong with the movie. You understand that that scene could be the most important scene in the movie--it can't damage the movie. That's a metaphor for our lives. The cause of suffering is the sense that our lives have gone wrong. But that one scene can be part of the perfection of the movie. We try to press the forward button or the rewind button, there may be a longing to return to a previous scene... but all of this is part of the present scene--the present scene holds everything without judgement.. the present scene is a giant Yes."

That does say it nicely!
Thanks!