The Road is Closed to the Past

Robert McAtee
1 min readApr 19, 2021

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“Road Closed to the Past” painting by Robert McAtee

Is the past important? “Yes … no … well I don’t know,” you say. What about the past impacts you currently? It brought you here to where you are now. It has shaped you. Has it brought you wisdom or has it confused your existence?

Are you blossoming in the light or are you stagnant in the shadows? Are you stuck in an agonized self-portrait, staring out a window with a furrowed brow? Did you paint this rendering or did the past paint this for you? Sentimental photographs, chemicals on paper, pixels on a screen … is the past your friend?

And what actually is true about the past anyway? What percentage of your re-creations could possibly be accurate? Ask a group of people what happened in a particular instance and doesn’t everyone tell the story differently?

So let’s get back to today. What is true? If you’re driving down the road with your face in the rear-view mirror or you’re staring way out at the horizon, then you’re missing the verity of now. Is it not true that right now is the only true thing that exists? The road is closed to the past.

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Robert McAtee

Robert McAtee is an actor, filmmaker, musician, painter and poet in Los Angeles, California. www.RobertMcAtee.com