The Moment

Such hubris! To live under the illusion that we know what tomorrow will bring. Making plans and preparing for a future that is as mythical and imaginary as the streets of Atlantis. We model in our minds what tomorrow may entail, we make our best guess based on what happened yesterday and the day before that, but it’s only a guess.

Some spend days, weeks, a lifetime planning meticulously for a future that cannot be known. A job interview, a career move, a first date; they all are planned with the assumption that human behavior is a constant, like gravity or the speed of light. They all are planned with the assumption that yesterday is an accurate template for tomorrow. They all are planned with a dose of naivety and a splash of ignorance. “The best laid plans of mice and men…”

If we hold our breath, if we don’t make any sudden movements, then life tomorrow may be a replica of today. But an errant step to the left or to the right, forward or backward, and tomorrow is nothing like we expected. If tomorrow was known, then he wouldn’t have gotten on that plane, and she wouldn’t have gone to school that day. If tomorrow was known, then he would be excited to wake up and start his day; after all, the sooner he could bump into her while fumbling for his keys, the sooner they could start their lives together.

Everything that happens in the next moment, in the next hour, day, or year, is the greatest unknown. Our plans are arrogant because we assume that tomorrow already exists, and that we control it. But tomorrow doesn’t exist, not yet. And when it does blink into existence in front of our very eyes, it’s not what we expected at all. We use words like fate, destiny, or luck to explain why our best laid plans were either destroyed or salvaged.

But there is liberation in the unknown. Our futures are not predetermined, no matter how much we plan for them. Go forward into the dawn of tomorrow without hesitation, knowing that yesterday is merely a ghost, and tomorrow is a figment of our imagination. The only reality, the only thing that is known for certain, is this moment. Embrace it!