New Year Life Lesson

Yesterday, while doing some belated Christmas Shopping and negotiating the crowded  electronics toy section aisles at Target, I overheard a father telling his little boy, "Look where you're going, son, not where you've been."

I thought that was good advice for all the youngsters who were angling for a good position to examine the latest action figure craze, Skylanders. Look back and they risk being creamed in the back of their heads by a shopping cart.

It wasn't until I got home and thought about it more that I realized how profound that off-handed remark really was, and that there isn't much better advice a father can give his son as we segue from a pretty rough 2013 to a more hopeful 2014.

The value of the phrase is punctuated by the news media as they give us "the year that was" lists reminding us of the "top sports stories of 2013," "the top personalities of 2013," "ten things about 2013 we'd like to forget," "top ten life-changing events of 2013," and the like. There's nothing more depressing than reliving, albeit via memories, all of that.

I'm with the dad at Target. Forget what's behind us, and look forward to what's ahead of us this brand new year.