the lost souls are entirely concerned /with their past.

[soso]

TO MARY WILLIS SHELBURNE: On being overconcerned about the past of others and of our own.

5 June 1961

We must be ware of the Past, mustn’t we?

I mean that [any fixing of the mind on old evils /beyond what is absolutely necessary /for repenting our own sins and forgiving those of others] is certainly useless and usually bad for us. 

* to be aware : having or showing realization, perception, or knowledge.

Notice /in Dante [that the lost souls are entirely concerned /with their past.

Not so the saved. 

This is one of the dangers of being, like you and me, old. 

There’s so much past, now, isn’t there? 

And so little else. 

But we must try /very hard [not to keep on endlessly chewing the cud]. 

We must look forward /more eagerly /to sloughing that old skin off forever

—metaphors getting a bit mixed here, but you know [what I mean].

From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume III
Compiled in Yours, Jack