Ah, freeway billboards….those wonderful, colorful sources of information that are placed along the freeways to grab your attention. Most of them dot the highways telling the weary traveler of food or gas options up ahead. Sometimes you’ll see a local lawyer, his face enlarged on the billboard with his phone number in giant numbers urging you to call him because he’ll get the best deal and the most money. In my area a local jewelry store always has a billboard reminding men about upcoming holidays, Christmas and Valentines being the two prominent ones where there seems to be a need to remind men to buy jewelry for that special someone. Billboards always tell you what’s coming up ahead never what you just passed or missed, and that seems appropriate for life in general. If I had a freeway billboard it would urge me to keep looking ahead.
Although my wife would disagree I actually have a pretty good memory…..well long-term memory, short-term memory not so much. I’m forever searching for my keys, my phone or my reading glasses. Thankfully most times I hang the keys up on the hook by the door, my phone is usually in my pocket or on the countertop but my reading glasses….well those could be anywhere which is why I have 2 pair. I always keep one of my reading glasses on the table next to the chair I usually read in, but the other pair, well they could be anywhere…..in the car, at work, in my pocket, in my coat pocket, usually they are right where my wife doesn’t want them, meaning they’re in her way. But long-term memory is different. My siblings usually consult me about memories from our childhood. I don’t remember everything but I do have this odd ability to remember times, places and even conversations.
This is both good and bad as I often remember points in my life that I wish never happened or I could do over. I’m forever replaying situations and scenarios over in my head wondering if I should have done something different. I often wonder why my brain works like this and what else it could be focusing on if it wasn’t dwelling so much in the past.
That’s why my freeway billboard would tell me to “Look Ahead”……. I can’t go back and re-do the past….nobody gets a do-over and quite frankly the events I think about are really inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, and let’s face it, I’m probably dwelling on events that nobody else thinks about and are long forgotten.
Sure I can use the past as a guide but I need to focus on the present and the future and leave the memories of long ago events in my rear view mirror like those freeway billboards trying to guilt me into buying expensive jewelry
As always…. Peace & Love
John
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