~a column by Colleen O’Brien
I’m told by the “be here now” folks that I’m supposed to be living in the present. The meditators and the metaphysicalists claim this is the road to happiness on this plane.
Being here now is problematic, however, because being here now means I have to keep thinking of now, which makes now very boring. Really, most days I’d rather be there . . . when I was young; or, the other there, in the future, where I’m safe in a parallel universe looking down on this blue dot of humanity that has figured out how to live together in harmony.
When I was very young I was just a girl who had fun because my responsibilities were minimal – make my bed, set the table, do the dishes, go to school, play all the time in between. It was a lovely life until I started thinking of the future, as in “I can’t wait till I drive,” or “When I’m 18 I can do whatever I want.” Up to that point, I was happy and slept well.
Once I started thinking that I had a future, I found I was paying attention to dumb things like fixing my hair, painting my fingernails, saving money to buy a swimsuit. It took until about now, six decades later, to revert to form and not have to pay attention to those things, at least as decisions that might determine quality of life.
When I think ahead, the immediate future is problematic and filled with dread – will I get a debilitating disease? Will I lose my marbles? Will I wind up in a nursing home that isn’t very clean because I can’t afford the $6,000-a-month nice one? Will my kids put me on the ice flow where I belong?
It is the far, far future (I’m thinking in terms of before the next century) that is full of possibility and hope, dreams of humankind actually acting kind:
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My grandkids live in peace.
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All humans take care of the nest, which is Earth.
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Everyone finally gets it that we’re in this together, whatever our gender, race, nationality, religion, sexual preference. . . . (I’m sure there are other differences that irritate us so.)
Some people who’ve lived awhile get crabby, I suppose because we feel we never got to do what we wanted or because we’re feeble and don’t feel all that great or because we can’t see to read, we can’t hear the TV, we can’t walk more than half a block; but we are able to while away our time with Facebook and Twitter. I’m working on being happy in the day, preferring to think about the perfect life, as opposed to the perfect storm, which seems to be life on this planet past and present.
I’m all for two things that might help young and old to lead the perfect life; they are:
- Live and let live.
- I’m doing the best I can at the moment, even though it might not be as good as what you can do; so everyone, leave everyone else alone.
If these two things were practiced by everyone on the planet, living in the now might be heaven on earth.
