Amtrak trains have cars with seats facing in opposite directions. You can choose your orientation: Looking back or forward. We’re all on Time’s track from and to, of course, and we all have that choice: Looking back or forward.
You might prefer to sit facing forward, eager for opportunity or fearful of the unknown. Another might prefer to look backward in gratitude or regret. Since you are the only passenger on your train, you have free access to seats facing both directions. So, what’s your preference?
What drives you to ride backward into your future and that has you focusing on your past? What motivates you to face forward and turn your back to the past? If you are like the rest of us, you will on occasion switch seats. Nostalgia vies with hope; melancholy, with anticipation; and failure or accomplishment, with goal.
In the highlands of the Allegheny Front above Altoona, Pennsylvania, trains go around Horseshoe Bend, a section of track that allows people in the front of the train to see the back of the train and vice versa. At times, all of us have the perspective passengers have when they round Horseshoe Bend, being able to get a clear view of where we’ve been or where we’re going. It is also true that the engine taking you into your future must drag the past with it.
It is from the perspective of our past that we believe we see where we are going. From the perspective of planning our destiny we recognize limitations imposed by where we have been and what we have done or failed to do. As you move along the track of your life, imagine that you are always going around a Horseshoe Bend. Are you in the back of the train looking forward or the front looking backward?
You might prefer to sit facing forward, eager for opportunity or fearful of the unknown. Another might prefer to look backward in gratitude or regret. Since you are the only passenger on your train, you have free access to seats facing both directions. So, what’s your preference?
What drives you to ride backward into your future and that has you focusing on your past? What motivates you to face forward and turn your back to the past? If you are like the rest of us, you will on occasion switch seats. Nostalgia vies with hope; melancholy, with anticipation; and failure or accomplishment, with goal.
In the highlands of the Allegheny Front above Altoona, Pennsylvania, trains go around Horseshoe Bend, a section of track that allows people in the front of the train to see the back of the train and vice versa. At times, all of us have the perspective passengers have when they round Horseshoe Bend, being able to get a clear view of where we’ve been or where we’re going. It is also true that the engine taking you into your future must drag the past with it.
It is from the perspective of our past that we believe we see where we are going. From the perspective of planning our destiny we recognize limitations imposed by where we have been and what we have done or failed to do. As you move along the track of your life, imagine that you are always going around a Horseshoe Bend. Are you in the back of the train looking forward or the front looking backward?
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