Our "Today" and Our "Tomorrow"

We live in "today." Yes, we all do to some extent.

Futurists may say they are living in -- this by imagining -- tomorrow. But what they imagine is based on what they are seeing and experiencing and (as important) thinking today.

World changing events do occur, but a frank and honest look tells us they are rarely what we, even the most imaginative of us, had expected.

Understanding this is critical, not just to the world as it turns, but to each of us and our own lives. And forgetting or ignoring it is destructive.

You cannot prepare for today -- you'd have to have done that yesterday. And preparation for tomorrow is limited to a) preparing for a wide range of possibilities with the focus on likelihood, and b) being "lucky."

How many of us, for instance, prepared for the closing up of society and the economy brought on by the reaction to Covid 19?

And note that keyword: The REACTION to Covid 19. For much that happens isn't truly based on what is actually happening, but on the perception of the same. -And that perception is for most people greatly influenced by others.

Fish swimming in a school may think that they are free to move where they want, up, down, this way or that -- but the greater part of their movement is determined by the movement of the school itself.

What controls that?

"Currents." "Leaders." Forces unknown.

All around us are currents. Currents in thinking. Currents in feelings. Moving people not as individuals, but as a group.

All around us are supposed "leaders." Influencing. Directing. That as they who claim to be able to predict tomorrow are themselves as stuck in today as everybody else.

"Wear masks!" "Black lives matter!" "Your color gives you privilege!" Those are the currents of the day. Those are the words of supposed "leaders.'

But that is TODAY. Tomorrow all three will be gone. Totally and completely forgotten.

The 'fish' won't even notice. The current of tomorrow's today will be then moving them on to somewhere else. Supposedly new and better ideas. New imperatives. -Ideas and imperatives that most all the fish will follow.

We -- you and I -- are moved by and with these things too. We, like it or not, are in the school moved by that current. Yes,every one of us.

But knowing that is so can make a difference, for then we can live our lives as they actually are -- which means wisely -- in the day's currents. -Making the best of the choices that are actually open to us, not limited by what we are told is open or closed to us. Making the best that each today has to offer. Not fooled, as so many are, into living someone else's life in their today and their hoped for tomorrow.



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