The Present Bridges
I was thinking about an occurrence in the past that wasn’t so pleasant. I realized thinking about the issue was irritating as what had happened. Immediately, I started to distance myself from the situation. I tried to separate myself from that past. While doing that, it occurred to me that this past existed. It was part of my history and it existed. Honestly, the way I went about it, you would think the experience belonged to someone else. At that moment, I didn’t want anything to do with it. When I acknowledged that it was indeed a part of my history and not someone else’s experience, the next clarity that took over my mind presented a much needed truth. The past must not necessarily influence the future. Matter of fact, they are two different phases all together. This assured me. I stopped trying to split it in such a way as if the past was someone else’s. I accepted it for what it was and became more fufilled with the promises of the future. This was how this topic came about. I saw the present as a bridge. I could decide to move back to that past or saunter on to a better future. I chose the later.
The Present is a gift that’s why it’s called a present. We must learn to live each moment because for instance, last moment is gone and never going to come back. The natural turn of seasons are continuous that we tend to take time for granted. Easily the sun sets and rises giving us each day. Heck, the invention of clocks and calendars helped us take inventory of the passage of time, but didn’t do much because there was always another day, month, and year. All we have to do is increase the numbers a certain way. In essence, I like it this way. The possibilities in the future are limitless. Tomorrow is the future just as the next second, the next year, or a decade. And no matter what we do, someday that future will be the past and we keep counting. In my moment of reawakening which happened this morning, I appreciated the importance of today, the present. Of course I have always known and I am definitely not writing this because you aren’t aware also, that what we do in the present has more bearing towards the future than the past. We already have learned lessons that better prepares us for what we ought to do.
The notion that the present is a bridge encompasses more than our individual lives. As a people, this is our time. What we do today contributes to the betterment of the future generations. Again, it is easy to act unconcerned because you’ve figured, what’s the chance that you will be alive 100 years from now? Why bother with the climate, replenishing natural resources, safeguarding principles of democracy and human rights? You rather keep your sights just a bit further from your nose, don’t you have all these pressing issues to deal with it? Of course you do. Everyone does. But let me ask you these questions. As a man how will you feel entering the jungle with three other people carrying only shields and spears to kill a lion only to prove your manhood knowing many times not every one makes it back alive? As a woman does it make sense to you right now if you were told not to eat egg or vote? As parents how will you feel that after being blessed with healthy twins, you have to put them to death because the society doesn’t understand such phenomenon? I bet your answers to these questions will be to cringe and forbid. These are the kinds of atrocities people in the past had to deal with and I didn’t even scratch the surface. But today we don’t have to live like that. Therefore, there is no reason not to live in such a way as to impact the world and make it better than we found it.
The future is intricate largely because of uncertainties. We don’t really know how things will turn out and just looking at what’s happening today around the world makes one wonder. However, I have never been the type to live with such fear. Recently, I was opportuned to reread the first book I had read with a smartphone. I hope to finish it once I post this up. But just thinking about how things play out and how time flies, amazes me. It should be around 2014 I was still strongheaded about reading ebooks from a smartphone. Back then I thought it was about the most stupid thing because for one, I wouldn’t get that nourishing smell one gets from books. That crisp sound of turning a page. The weight and feel of a book in one’s hands. The exercise of the eyes dancing along the fonts. The experience wasn’t just the same. But I happened to concede and I picked one novel to read with my smartphone then and ended up reading three works of that author in a stretch. The convenience of technology is unprecedented. However, I am old school. I still will prefer a physical book, a library, a shelf. Maybe that’s just me. I wouldn’t mention the title for some reasons. However, going through the work, some themes jumped out at me. How he handled the concept of destiny and fate. The power of belief, choices, and respect. These are topics I have handled on this blog. I cannot help but think that no matter how we choose to look at our purposes in life. What we do everyday in the present matters. What we think about. The people we associate with. The reasons we do what we do.
