The other day, a writing friend said it was hard for him to
write to an unknown future.
I offered that the future,
by definition, is unknown.
“But with all that is going on, it’s hard to plan,” he said.
True.
My suggestion, which is also what I do, is plan anyway.
There’s a
paraphrasing of an old Islamic Hadith, said by Martin Luther King Jr., “Even if
I knew the world is going to end tomorrow, I would plant a tree."
Works for me.
What does this
mean in real life context? I’m writing, while making sure we have enough toilet
paper for the next who-knows-what. I can’t plan for every shortage, so if the
next one will center on hairnets, tea or open-toe sandals, I may not have a sufficient
stash. But I will have toilet paper, and also writing paper, and enough sense
to know that there’s never a better time to plant a tree.
Onwards.
Yeah, the future is never known. You just have to keep going.
ReplyDeleteGood philosophy. We need lots of tree planters right now (especially with all those trees getting burned on the west coast).
ReplyDeleteThe future will come so I just continue to do what I do--read, write, pray. I'm stocking up on pen and paper and ink :)
ReplyDeleteThere is only the present. Both the past and the future exist in the mind, in the present. We remember the past. We imagine the future. But all that we truly experience is in this moment, which a moment later becomes the past. And the next moment is suddenly the future that has become the present.
ReplyDeleteStaying with my teacher daughter for a time in Ontario, I'm re-realizing how much "tomorrow" is a part of a teacher's life. It's all about the preparation (and the sanitizing, persuading 6-year-olds that masks aren't that bad, accepting that in a class of 20 kids, there are so many different ability levels, etc.) Such strange times. I just keep drawing (and writing sometimes) Onward...
ReplyDeleteSuch a great post! When life is overwhelming, you must do the next thing. Someday all this will pass, but I want to look back and have used my time of not being able to do all the "normal" stuff well.
ReplyDeleteIf nothing else, I must keep stepping forward because my teens are watching.