Forgotten

I saw an old obscure movie the other day.  This one was made in the 1950s and I'd never heard of it.  The Search For Bridey Murphy is based on a true story and I'd never heard of the woman either.  It was strange because I love old films and have seen most of them dozens of times.  And when I say old, I mean going back to the early 1900s.  Yet here was a film that I'd never heard of.  So I watched it and found myself mesmerized by it's topic of reincarnation and past-life regression.  I don't believe in it of course, but it was still interesting.  Later, after the film, I decided to do a little internet research to find out about this little-known story and how much of it was factual.  I was shocked to discover that it was a major film when it came out in 1956.  It started a craze for all things involving reincartnation.  There was a best-seller on the story which the movie was based on.  There were "Come as you were parties" where people came dressed as they may have been in a previous life.  There were songs about the woman and lots of other merchandise.  There were tapes of the actual Bridey Murphy sessions which could be purchased.  Articles were written about her in Time and Look and other magazines of the period.  A young man committed suicide, leaving a note that he wanted to discover the truth of reincarnation.
In other words, if you lived in the 1950s Bridey Murphey was bigger than Lady Gaga and Kim Kardashian combined.  Everyone knew who Bridey Murphy was.  It was the money-maker of the time.  But now she's all but forgotten.
This made me think of life in general--we spend so much time worrying over things.  Some of us worry to the point that we become sick.  I'm one of those people.  But in fifty-years will anyone really remember?  Will anyone care?
So, my new year resolution is to stop sweating the small stuff, to keep in mind that in 100 years or maybe in 50 it will not be important.  It will not matter.  In one hudred years it will not matter how much I made in commissions or how much my house dropped in value.  It will not matter about the weather or new laws or traffic congestion.  It will not matter that I'm fat and getting older.  It will not matter who I get along with at work and how much I may need to buy a new water heater.  All of these things are trivial and written on the wind.  Even our Great Recession will just be something written in history books.  And one day, centuries from now, even that may be forgotten.