The Marks Post: What drives you?

The past is in the past. While this statement seems simple, many of us yearn to go back in time and change the past. But, this isn’t the case. For instance, we can’t go back to November 22, 1963, and tell President John F. Kennedy’s driver not to turn on Elm Street in front of the Texas School Book Depository. If we could, though, it would alter the course of American history as we know it since then.
Others of us fall into the same category of Jay Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgrald’s The Great Gatsby.
Gatsby fell in love with a beautiful Kentucky farm girl named Daisy before going fight in World War I. When he came back from the war, he became consumed with the idea of recreating the past with Daisy. He became involved with a swindling bootlegger and became very wealthy in the process. As a result, he bought an opulent home across the bay from Daisy’s house and threw extravagant parties in hopes she would attend.
Still, Daisy never came. The only sign of her was a green light coming from her dock that Gatsby could see from his mansion.
Ultimately, Gatsby seeks help from Daisy’s cousin, Nick Carrway, to get the ex-couple back together. The two go on to meet up again at Carraway’s house for tea, and Gatsby’s fascination with the past heightens.
He tries to convince Daisy to tell her husband, Tom Buchanan, that she never loved him and to leave her husband. The cat comes out of the bag, sort of, at a party in Buchanan’s townhouse in the City. On the way back to Long Island, Daisy, while driving Gatsby’s car, hits and kills Buchanan’s mistress. Thinking Gatsby was driving, the dead woman’s husband plans his revenge.
Time passes, and the day Gatsby was waiting for finally comes. While he is swimming, the phone rings. Daisy is on the phone. However, before he could get to the phone, he is gunned down by the dead woman’s husband who, then, turns the gun on himself. The one thing Gatsby wanted the most led to his tragic downfall.
During different times in my life, I found myself similar to Gatsby and wanting to recreate the past. I’ve been haunted by regrets of things I did or things I didn’t do especially when it comes to failed relationships.
As for me, though, I remembered the words from Scripture about letting go of things if we want to get to Heaven. So, I let go of the regrets that were consuming me like they did Gatsby. Also, as for me, I have a beacon similar to that green light Gatsby saw coming from Daisy’s. In fact, we all have it. That light is Mary, the Star of the Sea, who guides us ever to her Son and a future with Him in the next life.
We all have a choice in life. Will we be like Gatsby and become consumed with the past, or will we learn from the past in order to make better decisions in the future that will help lead us to eternal life? To put it differently, what drives you? The past or the future?