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A VERY wise man (he paid me to call him that) told me a story the other day that was just so true and so fitting to our conversation.

(Don't sue me if I get it a little wrong, this is the Backchat version.)

Many aeons ago there were two Buddhist monks who had taken a vow of silence and purity, which meant they were not allowed to talk to or touch anyone.

For years they lived like this, in silence, going about their daily routines without any physical contact (don't worry, this isn't one of those dirty religious jokes). One day the two monks decided to go for a walk to... well, somewhere (so sue me, it happened "aeons ago", how should I remember!).

Along the way the encountered a bride. The beautiful figure dressed all in lace and white stood at the edge of a very large mud puddle.

She was on her way to the church to get married, but the puddle took up the entire width of the road and there was no other way to get across it other than to walk through it. She didn't want to be late, but also didn't want to show up at her wedding looking like Chucky's bride!

When the two monks saw this dilemma they felt terrible for the poor young girl, but knew they couldn't help her without breaking their vow.

The began to walk away, when all of a sudden one of the monks, let's call him Fred, saw the woman about to take a step into the mud, and called out her, "STOP! In the name of love!" Okay that's not what he said, but wouldn?t that have been funny?

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes. So Fred called out to the young bride, "Wait, my child, I?ll help you."

Bob looked shocked. What? Why do you look confused? Oh sorry, Bob is the other monk!

Anyway, so Bob looked shocked. He couldn't believe that after so many years in silence his buddy Fred had broken his vow.

He watched as Fred ran through the mud, over to the young lady and gestured for her to climb onto his back. Bob wanted so badly to call out to his friend, "YOU IDIOT!" but he knew he couldn't.

Fred carried the very grateful young bride over the mud and gently placed her on the clean ground. She hugged and thanked the kind monk before running off to the church.

Bob was fuming! How could he? How stupid! How could he spend so many years in silence and purity and give it all up so that some young lady could keep her frock clean. I mean, hello! Hasn't she heard of Vanish?

Fred and Bob walked on in silence to wherever they were going, Fred with a smile, feeling good about his good deed; Bob red in the face and scowling.

It was at least an hour up the road when Bob just couldn't take it any more.

He grabbed Fred by the shoulders and began to shout, "Why? Why did you do it? How could you be so silly as to break your vow after so many years by talking to that woman and carrying her on your back?"

Fred calmly turned to Bob and said, "I may have carried her for two minutes, but you, my friend, have been carrying her for at least an hour."

The end.

Anyway, to cut a long story short (too late), the moral is simple: Don't hang on to the past.

Burdens of the past will weigh you down in the future ? but only if you let them!

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