The Rearview Mirror

Janus, the two-headed god of the Romans, had the advantage over us. His goal was to look back and reflect on the past as well as to look forward and anticipate the future. Reflect is an interesting word, isn’t it? We use it to mean think deeply on or carefully about. We also use it to mean we see an image of ourselves. Very appropriate dualism for this time of year.

So many of us get blinders so we are stuck in looking back, looking in the rearview mirror, not even having a peripheral view. Or we only look forward and live in hope and anticipation of the future without learning from our past. Not a great stance either, but it is more positive.

If you’re in the former camp, try to get out of the backward looking. It is so often filled with regrets and second-guessing. If only I had . . . Why didn’t I . . . Now she’ll never . . .

See how negative and depressing that stance can be?

A Facebook meme caught my eye a couple of years ago. “There’s a reason why the rearview mirror is so small and the windshield is so big. Because where you’re headed is more important than where you’ve been.”

Doesn’t that just say it all? Of course we need to consider where we’ve been, but it should not dominate who we are or what we are thinking. Forward looking most of the time will get us to our destination more quickly than having our eyes looking back constantly.

Look back enough to keep oriented. Look back enough to recognize the influence from where you’ve been. But keep on truckin’. Momentum!

Can’t you see this as a theme/subtheme in a book? One partner is forward looking at all times. There is no past, in that person’s view. The past is over and done. No sense thinking about it to either reflect, revel, or regret.

Contrast that person with shis partner who can’t shake the past, who looks backward more than forward. “Living in the rearview mirror,” the past, is as devastating as one who won’t acknowledge the past. Imagine the conflicts you could write!

And don’t we learn lessons from our characters, as we write them, that apply to us, too? If you enjoyed this post, please copy/paste the messages below. Thank you!

Facebook: Do you live your life staring at the Rearview Mirror or do you look through the Windshield to what’s coming? http://bit.ly/2D77QBi

Twitter: #Writers can create characters who contrast by using their world view as Rearview Mirror or Windshield people. http://bit.ly/2D77QBi