In honor of the new Bruce Springsteen biopic ‘Deliver Me From Nowhere’ we offer this Throwdown Thursday question. Which Springsteen song better describes your life, ‘Glory Days’ or ‘Livin’ in the Future’?
Share why if you wish.
Category: Future
How Important Is Preservation?
To be able to learn from the past, we need to preserve it. But what happens when preservation keeps us from improving?
Most people are familiar with preservation, at least in basic form. If you live in a historic city or area, you are likely familiar with one or more buildings that have been designated a historical landmark.
Similarly, important historical figures often donate their papers and effects to a library. For instance, the Boston University’s Mugar Library has the papers, correspondence, and effects that belonged to noted author Isaac Asimov. They are preserved for historians to study.
Of course, preservation doesn’t have to be limited to famous people. You’ve probably thought about how you might preserve your own belongings. Perhaps you have a photo album, or keep postcards or letters you have received. Maybe you have a home safe or special location to store important documents. These might include the deed to a home, a wedding certificate, high school and/or college diploma, social security card, passport, and so on.
And yet, knowing what to keep and what to get rid of can be very difficult. Your email inbox, for instance, likely gets some important documents that you’d like to keep. Probably, it also gets flooded with unimportant messages of all kinds. Do you bother to sift through the contents to keep the wheat and eliminate the chaff? If not, is it because you don’t think it is worth your time?
Also, sometimes you have to tear down the old in order to build the new. Can we reconcile the need to save the past as well as make a better future?
Related questions: What possessions of yours will someone want when you die? What advice would you give your past self? Is life today better than in the past?
Relive The Past Or Look To The Future?
Which do you do more often: look to the future, or relive the past? Nostalgia has a strong pull, but it’s fun to dream about what lies ahead.
Share why if you wish.
Relive The Past Or Look To The Future?
What Kind Of Funeral Do You Want?
Have you thought about what happens after you die? What kind of funeral, memorial service, celebration of life, etc., do you want?
Share why if you wish.
How Do You See The Future?
It can be difficult to see months into the future, let alone years or decades. How do you see what lies ahead?
Reality serves us a constant reminder that we don’t know what is going to happen. At the start of the football season, we don’t know who is going to win the Super Bowl. We can’t predict the weather more than a week in advance. People who invest in the stock market can only hope a particular stock will go up in price.
And yet, despite all the evidence that shows we cannot accurately predict the future, some people seem awfully sure about what will happen next. News pundits, op-ed columnists, and politicians all seem certain they know exactly what will happen. Not to mention psychics and tarot card readers.
With that in mind, how do you think about what tomorrow will bring?
Perhaps you view the future with optimism. Tomorrow, you might expect, will be better than today. But, of course, there is no guarantee that this is true.
Or you might think that instead, we can expect the future to be very much like the present (or the past). After all, the sun rose yesterday, it rose this morning, and it will rise tomorrow. But we know that sometimes there are changes, including big ones. The COVID-19 pandemic caught nearly everyone by surprise, and that was an obvious case where the future (say, April 2020) didn’t resemble the past (February 2020).
When you think about the future, how do you make predictions, and how do you react to those predictions? What does that mean for your present?
Related questions: Should we try to predict the future? How much does your past determine your future? Will the future be better than the present? How do you plan for the future?