"That which has been, should have been or might have been simply IS not."
Lake Eufaula is a sprawling man made lake in eastern Oklahoma covering 102,000 acres. It has everything one could want in a lake. The interesting thing is that construction on the dam started in 1956 and wasn't complete until 1964 - I was already a year old. In lake years, it's just an itty-bitty baby.
But you can't tell that by looking at it, or by looking at how people enjoy it and profit from it.
I know the history of the lake well enough to know that once the dam was complete, there was a whole lot of rain. The lake filled up much more quickly than anticipated. As a result the demolition of many small towns was never finished. Except for what the water itself has rotted or washed away, the towns, buildings, trees, streets, etc are still down there. It's a little creepy
Once, on one of my trips down there, I asked the lake about the towns, the history and the secrets that were buried under its waters. I remember watching so many people out there having fun on boats, wave runners, etc. I thought of how many ways there are to enjoy the lake, none of which existed in 1940, and I thought about all of the life that was there in 1940 that doesn't exist now.
Before the lake filled up with water, people lived, farmed, fought, laughed, cried, and made love right down there at the bottom of the lake where people today were skiing over. Now that's all gone and something just as wonderful, though very different, has taken its place.
The lake's reaction to my pondering was simple: "That was then, this is now."
Paradigm shifts happen all the time in life. Just last month someone I work with was awakened at 4:30 AM by her husband of thirteen years who said he wanted a divorce. Every now and then, someone wins millions in the lottery and life is suddenly different. Today someone's house burned down somewhere in Kansas. Tomorrow, someone will decide to stop letting alcohol or drugs run and ruin his life.
I understood exactly what the lake was saying. Life, humanity and each one of us is forced and privileged to go through paradigm shifts from time to time. Once such an event occurs, it is counterproductive to think about what was and now is not. There's a lot of wisdom in living 'in the now', letting the past be the past and leaning towards the future.
But it's really hard for us mere mortals to do that.