Whilst it can be of
phenomenal strength in literature or poetry, music or film, repetition in life
is arguably among the most tedious and irritating experiences we are doomed to
suffer. At least that is the way it can feel. Time passes so quickly and yet at
once seems to stutter and start over the same hurdles. Without challenge we
would be bored, but why do the same lessons have to be repeated?
I seem to be stuck in
a nightmare circle in my day job where the same problems, which have already been
reviewed and seemingly resolved, crop up time and time again whenever there is
a contract or staff change. Is it that people are inherently incapable of
taking instruction from others, always believing they know best and resisting
guidance? Is it that they are entirely unable to learn from mistakes? Or
unwilling, perhaps?
I am become that
broken record, continuously providing the same instruction and the same piece
of advice over and over and over again in an endless whirl leaving me to
frequently and repetitively pose the questions: “What is wrong with people?” “Am
I speaking English?” “Where is the nearest brick wall so I can bang my head
against it?” There is something severely distasteful to me about having to
revisit something already considered closed. Why?
As a child I was very
lucky – my parents would often read to me, making stories and characters come
alive and igniting that love for storytelling which means so much to me today.
One book, one phrase, always stuck with me, and I can, even now, hear my father’s
voice uttering it: “And don’t look back”.
Has that phrase, don’t
look back, so ingrained itself in my subconscious that any repetition, any
revisiting of the past stokes impatience in me? Has it become my underlying
philosophy in life?
Don’t look back.
Life is too short to
dwell. Too short to spend time re-doing something that was already done. Too
short to linger on what has gone.
Don’t look back.
Repetition. It can be
a beautiful and poignant device.
Repetition. It can be
the most depressing point of the day.
Don’t look back. Don’t
dwell on it. Move on. Embrace the repetition. Perhaps that has to become my new
mantra. Perhaps I will learn something, even if others won’t. Perhaps reaching
for optimism in our lowest points is to truly find strength within that we did
not know was there.
Elloise Hopkins.
