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FANTASY ISLAND



"Fantasy Island" (1977 - 1984) was a TV series created by Gene Levitt and starred Ricardo Montalban, Herve Villechaize, Christopher Hewett, and Wendy Schaal. It was an island where guests (strictly by invitation) paid a phenomenon amount of money ($50,000) to live out their fantasies, even if it was just for one weekend only. And the fantasy was always far more than what they bargained for.
Each episode always begins with a toast "My dear guests, I am Mr. Roarke, your host. Welcome to Fantasy Island." And in one unforgettable weekend and one attempt, usually, to relive their pasts in one form or another, Mr. Roarke taught his guests very important life lessons, frequently in a manner that exposes the errors of their ways. And more so it is a lesson that sometimes the past is better left alone where it is, in the past. There are three phases in the journey of a man - yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Yesterday always starts out as today. It is what has already been and will never be again. And the phase we call today is the junction where yesterday intersects with tomorrow. Today is the shortest phase in the journey of a man. And whenever today becomes yesterday it can be celebrated but can never be relived again. And Fantasy Island is the island we often visit in our dire attempt to relive our yesterdays. It is the figment world that only exists in the realm of our fantasies. It is a place in our dreams rather than the place of our dreams. Except that on our own visit to Fantasy Island, neither Mr. Roarke nor Tartu, his sidekick are waiting for us. They have both completed their own journey and the Island has become a part of their own yesterday. And whenever a man allows his yesterday to control his today, he has also lost control of his tomorrow. And tomorrow in the journey of a man is just eagerly waiting for today to become tomorrow. The journey of a man is in three phases, in three days, and in seventy-two hours. And today is all we can only live for. Yesterday has become a fixed deposit, sometimes it is a canceled check, and tomorrow is a non-promissory note. Therefore, a man can only live for today and should only look to tomorrow and not look back to yesterday. "So don't even worry about tomorrow. After all, tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own"   (Matt . 6: 34). Really why worry about a tomorrow that's going to become yesterday anyway. It is just a matter of time. This has been a page from My Inspirational Files, I am Richard James.

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