* Changing History * in Just Stuff

Bring to mind one of your memories from when you were between seven and ten
years of age. This should be a memory of being harmed emotionally or
physically by one of your childhood playmates.

Now, rewrite that episode in your life.

Pretend that you as an adult now secretly inhabit your child-body. Now in
that moment, with your adult mind see through your young eyes how young and
emotionally out of control the other person is. See this other person’s
youth and psychological imbalance. See this person as really quite innocent
to the ways of the world. Now, give–to your younger self–your adult
mind’s ability to forgive naughty children.

Imagine and pretend that you find a way to resolve the situation that
supports the continued friendship of both of you. See the years pass into
the future and arrive in the present with you two having remained friends
all this time. See that your friendship has helped this person conquer
her/his personality problems to a large degree, and see yourself as having
established at a very young age the practice of being “bigger” than the
emotions of that remembered moment.

Spend some time doing this. Take at least five minutes–or an hour if you
like.

Push it. See what happens to your memory of the event as you continually “rewrite” or “overwrite” it. See how much it takes to “brainwash” yourself.
Experience the control you have over memory and discover a power you may
never have suspected you have.

Ask yourself:

In my daily life, should I decide to forgive or just wait for it to happen
with the passage of time?

How do I feel about that episode and that playmate now? If I met this
playmate now, would I joke with him/her about that episode? Would it be
good if I could completely forgive this person here and now?

What would my life be like if I at least pretended during my yet-to-come
challenges that I could step aside as I just now did in my memory and reach
a higher place from which to act and react? Could I pretend like this even
once in the future?

How was I like my playmate?

What am I still doing now in situations of conflict that is similar to what
I did back then? What kinds of psychological patterns do I still have
operating in my “normal personality” that were already fully operational in
my youth? Do I want to be a personality with patterns that were put there
before I knew the value of patterns?

Do I want to be a personality at all? Am I, in any way, something much
deeper than a set of psychological patterns?

Is forgiveness more an intellectual or emotional event?

When that childhood event happened, to whom did it happen? Was that really
me–the me I am now?

What do I have in common with “all” the past “ME’s?”

Would I think it would be moral for me to completely erase my memories and
put “better ones” in their places?

Who would the new me be like?

Regards,
Rick