"Great distance, in either time or space, has a wonderful power to lull and render quiescent the human mind." - Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln made this point in the midst of a speech about temperance - the movement against the "evils" of alcohol. But his point exactly was that the old method in those days of blasting drunkards with the premise that their behavior was immoral, and rode the straight track to eternal damnation, was ineffective for a couple of reasons. First, the general resistance of human nature against any motivation hurled downward from a platform of superiority. And second, the dullness (no matter how terrifying that eventual specter might be) that any vision impresses upon a person when it will not come to pass for many years.
Blessedly it works in the other direction too. The ghosts, nightmares and scars of the past wash away with the weakness of a footprint near the tide. Sometimes, or with practice, even of the recent past.
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