Editorial September 25, 1915 Issue

Efficient Forgetting

John B. Willis

There are few negative habits, surely, which play a more prominent part in the drama of human experience than that of forgetting, a habit which, as generally understood, stands for weakness, not strength; for loss, not gain. It is not a virtue, and it is in no sense commendable. Nevertheless in his letter to the Philippians St. Paul speaks of a forgetting which evidently has a significant relation to spiritual advance. He says, "Forgetting those things which are behind,... I press toward the mark." This "forgetting" renders a distinct service, and it therefore merits thoughtful consideration.

There are few mature people who do not have some "burden of recollection." They have had painful, nerve-trying, or heart-hurting experiences with the memory of which they would gladly part company forever; and yet an anomalous impulse leads most of them of talk much of just these things. They are not only reverted to, but their causal relation to present conditions is assertively traced and enlarged upon, so that in fact they are wrought into a system of law and order and constitute an influential part of present belief and experience. Past weakness, sickness, and sins are thus clung to, if not canvassed, by the conscientious, until every hour of their day, perchance, is embittered by some remembrance, and their growth and effectiveness diminished in the same degree.

The poisoning effects upon the physical body which result when its decaying past is not thrown off, serve to illustrate the inevitable ills attending the retention of effete experience. It not only manacles thought and banishes joy, but it interdicts growth, and this lamentable fact gives special point to St. Paul's statement, and as well to the teaching of Mrs. Eddy on page 165 of Science and Health, that the remedy for human ills is found in forgetting them. The only profit derived from any stumbling in thought or deed is the lesson enforced by its penalties, a wisdom which were better gained, as it certainly may be, in another way; and happily the possession and use of this wisdom does not call for the continuous rehearsal of the experience by which it was acquired. The progressive spirit clings only to good, to the ideal.

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