TO: "YESTERDAY,TODAY AND TOMORROW"

By Yesterday

"Yesterday is but today's memory and tomorrow is today's dream."

Khalil Gibran

My beloved invention,

I have this habit of quoting The Poets in my letters. Yes, it was that Lebanese poet who said it: that I am but a memory and that Tomorrow is only a dream. I am elated that you have not forgotten me yet. You wouldn't believe your ears if I told you how many of them have forgotten me already. How painful! The day I invented you, I saw everything and said, "Behold, everything is good!" Didn't that Jewish scribe tell you? But now I see imperfection everywhere; they have forgotten me. Perhaps you are the only invention I should have had.

My dear, I cannot say you have wronged me but you have made quite a few presumptions about me that are wrong. However, that is not more than a mother can bear. But it just calls for another chance of mentoring you and hence this letter.

My dearest of inventions, you are the sum of all that have been your yesterdays. The scars I have impressed on you, all those memories - both sweet and sour - the mistakes you made and the wrongs you righted, all the yesterdays you have had so far, know you not that those are you? Yesterday is your progenitor, your mother! And "Mother" should have been the sweetest word on your lips! (Isn't that what the poet said?) How can you call me cruel and mean? Do you not know that fighting with your Yesterday is being at war with your own self? Besides, I can see that remorse and regrets, scores of "I should haves" and "I shouldn't haves" are consuming you. Take heed child! Yesterday is what has dictated your Today; even the phantom Tomorrow, if it ever comes, depends on me. That is how I, in my infinite wisdom, have willed it to be. Accept your Yesterday, call me "my dear Yesterday," and you will appease Today, and you shall love and be loved. (Isn't that your wish anyway?)

I always say, "Tomorrow is but a phantom," for one never knows if it shall come. Poor child, it pains me to see that you have rested all your hopes on a phantom that is Tomorrow. "Sweet Tomorrow," you call it, and I believe you have even made a messiah out of it. Never can a phantom be your deliverer, son, for it is never promised. Have you not heard the cliché that Tomorrow is never promised?

My beloved, you have asked me this, "Why didn't you say something so I could have taken care of all the good things that happen and transferred to today?" I could have done that but I refrained from it for your own good. What would you have been doing in your Today if I told you the slightest something? Wouldn't your life have been a two-and-two-makes-four affair? Wouldn't you have been like that mathematical table - everything of yours figured out and nothing left for you to invent? Wouldn't you already have died of boredom if you had that kind of predetermined life? What would you have been without the challenges and all that makes life colorful? I have, in stead, given you the playing dough of life so that you can shape it, reshape it and make whatever kind of life you want out of it. Remember what Sartre said, "Everything has been figured out, except how to live." Yes! Everything except how to live! And that is because I, in my infinite wisdom, considered it the best way for you. Figure out how you should live your Today; invent, create, don't just sit there and wonder what you will do Tomorrow, if it ever comes. You can long for Tomorrow, though, while you remember me and make your Today, just like that Lebanese poet said - "Let Today embrace the past with remembrance and the future with longing." That is the hallmark of harmony; that is what I call life. Remember this, by not telling you the slightest hint I have given you life.

I understand your frustrations with Today and that may be why you told me to "get the hell" out of your life. I sure am "the hell" out of your life for I am no longer there. But remember, my footprints remain; and the legacy I have bestowed upon you is still lingering. Never mind the other curses you threw at me; I am your mother and I can bear it, son. Today knows you are unhappy and says, "Be happy while I am still around." - Just that. Finally, I should like to tell you that Today cannot wait for darkness to come, for that is the time Yesterday and Today shall be married and become one.

With Love,

Yesterday.

PS: Tomorrow is a phantom and cannot hear you; so let me answer your questions. By Tomorrow, if Tomorrow ever comes, Weather shall be the sum of what you have done to Earth when Yesterday was there and what you are doing to Earth while Today is around. Today and I are the authorities over Tomorrow and we cannot promise you friendship of him for Tomorrow may never come.

PS: As usual, I haven't forgotten the last quotation for your edification. Today I have Marcus Aurelius for you. By the way, I am proud that you are reading the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. (Even though he is an Antonine king, Marcus Aurelius is usually known by Aurelius and not by Antonius.) Beloved invention, remember this:

"To live each day as though one's last, never flustered, never apathetic, never attitudinizing - here is the perfection of character."

Marcus Aurelius