For those of us humans who can never really live “in the moment,” we’re doing one of two things — either looking forward or looking backward.
Those who look forward a lot either can’t wait for the “next” thing or just want their current situations to be done with and move on.
Aside from those fine folks, a lot of people LOVE to look backward — I’m one of them.
I’m either looking back on events in my own life, either with a reminiscent awe or regretful disgust, or looking back on “what once was” with a reverential romanticism.
Have any of us “past-dwellers” ever considered that we’re also living in a time that people will look back on even after many of us are long gone from this life?
Huh? Why? A few reasons.
What a time to be alive
Things we take for granted today are going to be seen as downright awesome in the future.
Actually, no, they won’t be seen as “awesome,” they’ll be seen as whatever new word future generations came up with that now means “awesome”.
I’m a terrible futurist so I’m not even going to guess what elements of the 2020s will be held in awe, but I can guess what past things were taken for granted.
In the first part of the 20th century, the family farm was a normal, common, and good thing. Chances are if you live in the country, you farmed. That’s just how it was. Cows always need to be milked, right?
In the 1940s, radio and radio programming was common and had gone past its novelty stage. Tele-what?
Not all that long ago, if you wanted to contact someone immediately, you used the telephone. You’d always hear their voices. How else would you talk to them?
Those things weren’t anything legendary, they were just life and how good things were, and all good in their own right.
Something good that we take for granted now may be gone sooner than we think and looked on with fondness by our posterity.
Let’s not do that again
History books are made of mistakes and bad things.
There are mistakes and bad things going on every day.
We’re a little divided right now on what those are, which in itself is a bad thing.
Our negatives will long be the subject of books, documentaries, or whatever the future uses to inform and teach.
I’m willing to bet most of you, as you’re getting the news from the outlet of your choice, shake your heads and wonder “why why why?” and “how how how?”
So will those who will come after us.
For those reading this in the future, be nice to us. Many of us did the best we could, all things considered.
The start of something big
My hope, though, is that those who are to come after us will look on this time with a sense of excitement.
I want them to say “Wouldn’t have it been cool to have been there when . . .” something big was about to happen?
We want to be in Kitty Hawk in 1903 to see flight born.
We (or some of us) want to be in New York City in February 1964 when a plane touched down and Beatlemania began.
Someone in the future wants to be right here, right now, right before things got better, or things got better than they ever were.
Enjoy the past, my friends.
Thank you for reading.
I’m praying for you.