Eh? How can we be stuck in the present??? Good question I thought! Well... the idea of instant gratification. The idea that we can have everything and anything... right NOW! Let's buy that car right NOW! Let's buy that house right NOW!... Never-mind that we don't have the resources or the cash. Let's just get another credit card right NOW... and worry about the consequences later... With no thought to the future... No thought to what the consequences might be. Let's just get drunk now... or binge eat now... or stop exercising now... Our kids are being raised in an era of instanteous gratification... We are teaching them to think that everything can come right NOW... with no effort... no fuss no muss no work... Go figure...
There's a show on Slice called "Till Debt do us Part" and it epitomizes the up and coming generation of urbanites who are stuck in the now. These couoples (mostly 20 or 30 somethings) are stuck in the present. They have all the gadgets and toys and are $60,000 in debt, overspending by $6000 each month. In 5 years, they will be $800,000 in debt! But in their myopic view of the "NOW"... they can't see that, until the host of the show rubs their noses in it and shows them the future...
Sure, sure... living in the present is a great thing for meditation... but if you don't plan your day or where your next meal will come from or how you'll heat your home this winter... you won't be in the present much... you'll be in the past (starved or frozen to death). Even Buddhist monks who live in the present/now, have neighbouring communities who plan for their future. You don't! So, don't abdicate your responsibility to create a future for yourself...
As a society, we live in an environmental NOW that is fast becoming something that is way past sustainability... If we keep ignoring the future to focus on the now... Well... take a look at the carrier pigeons, the do-do birds, the plains bison...
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