The March of Time

Daily writing prompt

Do you spend more time thinking about the future or the past? Why?

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In Lewis Carroll’s Alice and Wonderland, the White Rabbit leads Alice down the rabbit hole, with cries of “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!”.

Answering the prompt might cause me to venture down the hole as well. I’ve never calculated the time I might have spent contemplating past and future in relation to one or the other. I don’t really care which is greater but If I had to guess, I do believe contemplating the future occupies more of my time than looking back. Either taken to extremes offer little value.

I’m of the opinion that we humans tend to look forward. We certainly must spend some time looking towards the future. If we cannot conceive of one, how could we go on? In the past I tended to plan, strategize, set goals and agonize over a future that in many cases never materialized.

I do enjoy a look in the rear view mirror. I’ve enjoyed a full life with mistakes, sorrows and joy, accomplishments and failures. They are all part of the bumpy road I’ve traveled to this point. In marking the twists and turns that brought me to this point, They might aid me in navigating around the next bend. There’s no substitute for life experience. The past can provide us with tools in assembling our future but I don’t dwell there. I remind myself the past is dead, and the future is not yet born. I am here now.

“Life is just three days –
yesterday, today, tomorrow;
yesterday is gone,
tomorrow may not come,
all we have is today –
so in actuality,
life is just one day, today –
rest is either memory or imagination.”
― Abhijit Naskar