17 May 2011

times like these

Something I find ridiculous is when people plan out their lives. One time my friend wrote an essay for a seminar she had and she asked me to read it. It was really good and well-thought out. She has known what she wants to be for as long as I've known her and she knows where she wants to go, when she wants to have kids, and even what neighborhood she wants to live in (she knows the street name and everything).
The other day my sister was in school and they asked all of the eight graders to go on this website to create your high school plan and your career plan. In middle school? What is this? I don't even know what I want to be when I leave high school. I don't even know what I'm going to wear tomorrow. Actually, tomorrow's an exception because I do know what I'm going to wer - my white pants with my black flouncy shirt and of course my fancy black patent leather flats. With a nice necklace and a sweater of course. Tomorrow's going to be the "make an effort" day. I have to have one of those every week or else I'll look like a schlep.
The point of these little vignettes is to show you how ridiculous this whole planning thing has gotten. I got it - have kids write out their goals and what not - but really, but worrying about the future you can't enjoy the present. And sometimes we need to plan things. Like getting my passport renewed so I won't be detained in Costa Rica (I don't know enough Spanish to last me that long). But you can't plan things like life. So I find these things ridiculous.
I also find it strange when my friends will say "I've wanted to be a [fill in the blank] all my life". How do you know that? And why worry about what you aren't sure about?
Sometimes we just have to let it roll.
What if you had to do something every day, like blog. That's 365 blog posts per year. What if you had to worry about doing 365 posts in one day? You can't live like that. You need to take one post at a time. Because that's the present, and if you don't enjoy the present, what is there to enjoy?
There are three time periods: the past, the present, and the future. We only live in the present; we can't live in the future or in the past because we have either passed or not yet entered the other. Yet most people only spend time in the past or the future. They have no present. Make your own present.
Don't not think about the past or future; just don't let things that have happened or might happen get in the way of what is actually happening - your life.
By the way, the blog title is named after a Jack Johnson song. Also, sorry for the typos. Spellcheck isn't working.

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