History and Mystery

When we’re born, we come into this world as a present with a mysterious future waiting to unfold day by day. And with each passing day, we begin to write the pages of our past. Sometimes a past is so everlasting, that it lingers on for generations to come.

I recently visited the Holocaust Memorial Museum in DC and felt maybe a grain of what those victims endured just a few decades ago. Here lies a past that is so vivid, that it almost feels a bit raw. Everyone has a past – just not everyone chooses to tell his/her story. Every city has a past – DC just happens to be the place where history congregates itself.

It’s been said, “to move on in life, you have to let the past go.” But what is it that you let go of and still hold on to? People perish, but memories only fade away. Wounds may heal, but some scar for life – like those of the Holocaust survivors who had camp ID numbers tattooed on their arms. They were stripped of their identities, only to be replaced by a mere statistic in one of the greatest catastrophes in history.

We come into this world with a blank book, which we fill with each passing chapter. Sometimes all you need to move on is turn the page, because history only repeats itself for those who never learn from it.