Eddy showed me a short essay from The Convivial Society that, to my mind, sums up the fake feeling you get when you’re on the internet. Basically, everything online is meant to feel like it’s in the present, but of course, it isn’t. Everything is in the past. Even as you see it happening in the present, it is something broken down and reconstituted to become present, essentially, hollow.
This got me thinking. I do live too much in the past. Whether it’s the distant past (nostalgia/regret) or the recent past (pride/disappointment), I’m constantly reevaluating what I did yesterday, or a week ago, etc.
What if this was turned around? What if we looked toward the future? Not in some pie in the sky way. But really. What if the you of today was constantly doing prep work for the you of tomorrow?
The you of tomorrow is innocent. He didn’t ask to be born, but he will be (probably). Why not set things up for him to have a nice day?
I do a lot of prep work for the kid. I have to make sure the floors are clean the night before, otherwise I’ll be trying to juggle mopping and keeping an eye on the kid. That is…if he doesn’t want my full attention. Then I have to do that with a dirty floor.
Every action toward a future, an act of kindness to the you of tomorrow.
Broken River Blog 