Yesterday is History

I watched “Kung Fu Panda” the other night, and a phrase by the wise turtle kung fu master Oogway caught my attention:

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery. But today is a gift. That is why it is called the present.”

The first inclination I had was to attribute the line to the script writers. But I dismissed that rather quickly, for as talented as writers are, they generally are not philosophers. Being a curious sort who values bon mots and deep thought-producing phrases, I did a little research.

Here’s what I found:

Some people believe that the phrase was made popular by Joan Rivers. Joan Rivers? That smart-aleck comedienne? Yep, that one. But others think she got it from an address by Eleanor Roosevelt, who was Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s first lady. And still others think Mrs. Roosevelt got it from a poem by Laszlo Kotro-Kosztandi.

I tried to find something – anything – about Kotro-Kosztandi, but there’s not much to be found, but I did find a project agenda that lists a “Laszlo Kotro-Kosztandi” as a speaker from Romania. The project took place in 2008.

What are the odds of two people of different generations having the same name? If this is the same man, it is highly unlikely that he could have written his poem when Eleanor Roosevelt was alive.

So … I’m leaning toward the belief that the quotation should be credited to Mrs. Roosevelt.