Take charge

"History repeats itself."

What a sad thing to say. Even if it’s not directed to me, I feel sad when I hear someone say this. But sad is an understatement. I take offense as I can feel the inequality of this statement very similar to when I hear someone say that because his father is a thief, he- the son- will one day become a thief too. How unfair.

Or just because a country had gone down the economic rut in the past that it’s going to plunge to the same rut again. Maybe. But then, maybe not. And what a hasty judgment to say that history will repeat itself.

With its negative undertone, it’s a creepy, hope-crushing life sentence to anyone. Just imagine being sentenced to a future based on a past you may or may not have direct control of. What a gross injustice.

It’s maybe true that what happened in the past will play an important part in the present time. But the past do not have a power on anyone, unless one lets it.

That’s why I beg to disagree. History will not repeat itself. But history will repeat itself if we let it.

We cannot be like a leaf riding the tide of the past and letting it carry us to unwanted shores. We are not helpless. We can make a difference to the here-and-now.

”All that we are is the result of what we have thought.”

-Buddha

History repeats itself. I cannot believe that. I cannot surrender the chance I have to make a difference in the future.

And I believe that the present time is a battle to make a better future. I believe in taking action, of taking charge of our lives. I believe in renewal. I believe in prayers. Most of all, I believe in a Greater Being who makes miracles.

So who are we to say that history will repeat itself?

”The future is not a result of choices among alternative paths offered by the present, but a place that is created--created first in the mind and will, created next in activity. The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made, and the activity of making them, changes both the maker and the destination.”

John Schaar

” We have not inherited the earth from our ancestors, we have only borrowed it from our children.”

Ancient Proverb