the lost souls are entirely concerned with their past

[soso]

Today's Reading

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

5 June 1961

We must beware /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.

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.

* beware: be cautious and alert to the dangers of. to be on one's guard; to take care of; to be wary of

          used to warn someone to be very careful about something or someone:

* else; other than the persons or things mentioned or implied:

* shed or remove (a layer of dead skin). to get rid of

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

The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Volume III: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy 1950-1963. Copyright © 2007 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Yours, Jack: Spiritual Direction from C. S. Lewis. Copyright © 2008 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.