…..given the immense, smoldering anger I was feeling deep inside me, I knew I had to move expeditiously to distance myself from the hideous moment with as much speed as I could muster or otherwise I was liable to do or say something rash that I would almost certainly regret later. What happened has happened and it now resides squarely in the past where it belongs, and the only element of the travesty I can currently control is my reaction to it. That’s right, I exercise a picayune bit of control over the present and maybe I can wobble the future on its axis a barely discernible speck too, but I definitely command no leverage over the past. The past is a million ton monolith; it is immovable, implacable, and unalterable. So just move slowly away from this abominable moment at hand and put a little distance between you and it, Fred, and in time that smoldering anger burning uncontrolled within your breast will start abating before beginning to flicker, thereby signaling its death throes not unlike a campfire left untended overnight. Only then are you safe, although surely not advised, to look backwards to assess the damage that was inflicted on your person. Looking backwards is never a good idea, understand, yet this advice comes with a massive caveat: Gazing into the past is almost instinctual behavior and beyond one’s ability to control……
Fred's Soapbox 