Fantastic Advice (Pun Intended)

As I came home from school today, I stopped by the library to see if they had any interesting movies available for me to borrow. Among other things, I picked up a copy of a version of Fantastic Four in which Reed (Mr. Fantastic) asks Susan (The Invisible Woman) what she thinks her life would have been like had she not followed the chain of events that lead to her getting super powers. In response, Susan says "We can't change the past, but we can change the future."

There have been many messages that essentially advocate letting go of the past and focussing on the future instead. The past is meant to be learned from, not lived in. And while speculation can be fun, it's ultimately pointless to ask how things might have turned out had some things gone differently. The past is in the past. It happened, and we can't change that. But, with or without super powers, we can influence what happens next.

The past may not be what we want it to be, but the future can. No matter what lies in our past, we can build a better future on top of it, and we don't have to rewrite history to do it. We can move forward. In fact, to make any progress at all, we have to move forward, and that can be very difficult if we're constantly focussing on the past. Sometimes, we need to let go of the "what ifs" and focus instead on what is and what can be. We can't turn back time or do any of the "fantastic" things superheroes do, but we can learn to make decisions that influence the future. We can change things for the better, and that starts by making peace with the past and making plans for the future.