77. Why We Shouldn’t Live in the Present

I did a Google image search for "Live in the Present" and took the screen shot of the results, above. I have heard this admonition a lot in my life, but I think it's a really bad idea.

Right now, we're in a weird moment in history.

• Some of us have a lot of time on our hands.
• Some of us are finally coming to grips with the fact that the world is decidedly tilted to advantage some and disadvantage others. (If you're just noticing this now, you're one of the ones who's benefitted from the slant.)
• Some of us are experiencing milestones in ways we never imagined they would happen.
• Some of us are suffering and dealing with the suffering of loved ones in totally unplanned ways.
• Some of us are experiencing financial distress.

And with all of this going on, I believe more than ever that we can't just live in the here and now. The here and now isn't good enough to settle for. We need to learn from our pasts. The only way to do that, is to think about the systems that have benefitted or burdened us or others and the choices we've made to accept or change that framework. We need to understand how the world got into the situation it's in. As an example, if you look at "looting" out of context, it seems pretty bad, but if you think about the social contract that the police system is breaking, destruction of property seems a pretty reasonable reaction. If you haven't watched Trevor Noah's monologue about our nation's broken social contract, you really should. He explains everything way better than I ever could. All this to say, we must think about the past. (While we're on the subject of Trevor Noah, I recently read his Born a Crime, and highly recommend it. While it's set in South Africa, much of it mirrors the structure of the USA.)

We have to think about the future, too. If we don't care about the future, we live without hope. We will lead ourselves to a future full of regret. If all we do is enjoy each moment for itself, we will look back later and ask, "Why didn't I think ahead?" Time moves on, whether we work for things or not, so we will have to face our future selves. I try to make choices today that won't make the Carita of tomorrow angry or sad about what the Carita of today decided to do with her time.

Yes, we should see each minute as precious. The present is precious because of what we can do with it. We should spend time building loving connections with others. We should spend time feeling gratitude for whatever good life brings us. BUT, we should not spend ALL of our time living in the moment. If we spend all of our time watching Netflix and eating candy (insert your self-soother of choice here), then tomorrow offers us only regret. Instead, we can spend some of today's moments trying to make the world of tomorrow better for ourselves and for our children and for other people's children. We should spend some time tending our metaphorical gardens to figure out what we can make grow. (Read Candide to get the allusion, but use your understanding of a garden to get the suggestion.) If we sow seeds of love, peace, understanding, and hope now, everyone's got a better chance to "live in the moment" later.

So, right now, I'm asking my loyal readers (all three of you) to commit to doing something this week that will make a better future for somebody else. Please feel invited to share your plan in the comments to spark somebody else's good-deed doing, future-hope planning, or seeds-of-all-good-things planting.