Sandstone

It's not usually the past that scares me, but one's propensity to repeat it. The former is etched in stone; the latter writ in sand.

My mother used to tell me things like stay away from women who’ve done X (fill in the blank). I would respond, no, I want a woman who wouldn’t do X. My mother meant well, but I'm not sure she ever understood the difference. In her mind X was an indelible brand. In my mind there is such a thing as repentance and turning away from past behavior. Sounds pretty uncontroversial, I think, even noble. Yet, start filling in the X with specific behaviors and nobility might begin to look like foolishness. Fill in the hypothetical woman with a real person and see just what kind of fool you really are. Or not.