I am someone who can’t remember words to songs, but there is one line from one song, ‘Me and Bobby McGee’ that has stuck with me since I first heard Janis Joplin’s rendition.

This is the memorable line: “But I ‘d trade all of my tomorrows for a single yesterday.”

I was in my teens when I first heard this song, and I was perplexed why anyone would give up all their tomorrows. I had recently been diagnosed and did not like myself or my life, but I had hope life would get better, my yesterdays were too painful to want to repeat.

As the years passed, I had more yesterdays and many were enjoyable, but I would I trade all my tomorrows for a single yesterday? I don’t think I would.

I have asked many people this question and only one person in his 60s was certain he would trade all his future on a single yesterday, and he even knew the day. It was when he met his wife, who died a few years earlier.

I know it is a line from a song, but it does make me think. Are we looking forward to the future while enjoying the present? Or are we always looking back wanting to relive just one more yesterday?

I wonder, would you trade all your tomorrows for a single yesterday? Why or why not?

Is there anything you would trade all your tomorrows for?

Is there another line or phrase from a song that has made you think?

Leah

A Moodscope member.