Ranting: When Past Meets Future

They make such a big deal about it, you know. "u r goin 2b an adult now! like, OMG!" Right, very exciting, I'm sure.

It's funny, really. For the first part of our lives, most people spent it looking towards the future. Some people dream about the day when they can drive, stay up late, whatever. They dream of growing up. It is a slightly disillusioning point for most people because when you're grown up, half of the thing you want don't turn out quite as so wonderful as you imagined when you were little. For others, though, looking to the future is slightly more subtle. You spent the first half of your school year looking towards Christmas, and then the second half of it looking towards summer, and then you spent summer looking forward to each new movie/book/party that comes up and viola! You're back at square one with the cycle.
Where does it end? Does it ever end, really?

One might as well argue that one can't very well look into the PAST because what's done is done and it's all, well, in the PAST. I beg to differ. Most seniors spent the majority of their time looking into the past. If you've ever spent any length of time with someone over sixty you'd know that re-living the past glories is, for them, one of the best ways to spend their time.
Depressing perspective check (skip if psychologically necessary): Why do they look towards the past? Possibly because they no longer can find anything to look for in the future.

Between the stages then, there really is no in-between.
Let me clarify: We slide from one stage to the other (most of us, anyway; some of us just wander around aimlessly in a confused daze) without a transition. The psychological change must occur over a gradient, certainly, but the process itself is so subtle that you don't realize you're there until you're there.

My point is, however, on the importance of finding and walking that fine wire between the past and the future. Look a little bit into the future, of course, it gives you a little forbearance. (Did I even spell that remotely close to how it's suppose to be spelled?) Look a little bit into the past too, because it teaches you wisdom. What we should be LIVING for, though, is the present.

Let's be logical about this, shall we? The future is not strictly in your control. The future isn't strictly in any human's control. You may prepare for and influence it, but unexpected things can happen. Accidents occur. Absolute control over the future is not mutually inclusive with our present ways of existence. It's that simple. The past is not in our control either. What has happened has happened and there is to be a lapse in time. You can't change the past (though a good many would like to, I'm sure), you can "influence" your past (i.e. memory modification, most of us do it to some degree), but you can't change the facts, really (mental disorders aside, we're assuming for most normal people). Again, given our current state of existence (no time travel resulting in weird time paradox), the past is out of our hands.

But the present. Very malleable, it is. Very...ARBITRARY...if you know what I mean. Things happen in the present (I know, I know, 'no duh, Sherlock'). Take this in the context of all the other lovely things that I've been ranting about--I think most people KNOW but they don't fully SEE the significance of the present as the link between the past and the future. The present is the closest thing to the future that you can control, and the present will become the past instantaneously when the moment is past. Through present you can influence both the past and the future and, if that isn't enough, just stop thinking and FEEL for a moment.

You live in the present. You're alive in the present. You belong in the present.

Live for the present, my friends, live for the present.