When Theo talks about the past, he refers to it as last year. It can mean yesterday: “I had fun at Target last year.” It can mean last week: “Last year we saw cats at the park.” It can be some undetermined time: “I was a sad baby last year.” He’s really bad with time (because he’s a toddler), but I think he might be on to something.

For Theo, everything that happened before today happened last year. It doesn’t matter at what point in the past he was cranky or tired or happy or having fun. That was last year. Today is today, and that’s what he really cares about.

This is a pretty smart way to live your life.

We have good experiences and bad, and everything in between, but they are with us only momentarily. Once our actions, our feelings, our mistakes, our victories have moved out of the present, they should have less of an impact on us. They are last year, and we can’t live in last year. We can only live in today.

This isn’t to say that we should disregard the past; our good choices are worth celebrating, and our mistakes can teach us something. In both cases, however, it is not much use for use to dwell on them. We can use last year as a reference, but we shouldn’t let it determine our course today.

As for the future? Theo has a similar take on that, but we can save it for another time. Sometime next year perhaps.