Do you ever get the impression that this is all some giant preamble to something else? Like that this is just what you have to get through until the real event begins. I'm not talking specifically about an afterlife either, although that's really the whole basis of Heaven. Be good now, because if you are, things will be better later. It's not to say that what happens here is meaningless, but its only importance is that if we're not good then we won't be allowed in. Once we get into heaven though, everything that happened before doesn't matter. Whether any of that is true or not isn't what I'm referring to. Is it possible that right now isn't as important as what's next? In thinking that way are you neglecting the present in hopes that tomorrow is going to be better? Even Yoda said something about this "All his life he's looked away, to the future. Never his mind on where he was. On what he was doing."
The very nature of life is that it's temporary. As I've mentioned before, the present is such a small fraction of our reality and that most of our life is either behind us or in front of us. When you know that your situation is temporary how do you make sure that this moment here and now gets as much attention as those moments yet to come? You go through primary school so that you can eventually go to college. College is all about preparing your for getting a job. Your first job may be entry level so that you can be prepared for hopefully deeper, more meaningful work. Everything up until that point had been preparation for something else. I know you shouldn't allow yourself to think too far into the future, but at the same time if you know something isn't going to last then it's human nature to prepare for what's next, even if that's at the expense of what you're supposed to be doing now. During the week we tend to look at the clock, counting the hours until it's time to go home. When we're home we're counting the days until the weekend. Next thing you know, it's Monday again and the cycle begins again.
I recently started working again and have found that my time feels a lot more precious than before when I had nothing but time. I find myself questioning if I should be spending my time doing certain things because with a finite amount of time in the evening it sometimes feels like I'm wasting it on trivial things. While I like my current job, I was constantly thinking about what would be coming next. I entered into it knowing that it was only a stepping stone for something else. Now I have an even newer job that I will be starting shortly and I have to wonder if given enough time I'll look at it the same way. Everything leads to something else and nothing lasts forever, but I suppose you have to remind yourself to appreciate the moments in between now and then. If you don't then you'll be lost in some kind of limbo between waiting for the next thing while the present passes you by.
Martin said that he always felt very temporary about himself and I can appreciate that kind of feeling because for most of my life it's felt like I've been on the verge of doing something. That something was always put on hold by some indescribable hold-up. It's like my preparation for the next thing prevented me from taking care of this moment. And it's this moment that inevitably leads to the next. As obvious as that sounds, a lot of people seem to try and skip ahead in hopes that it will get them along the path sooner. It's like trying to cook something at twice the normal heat for half the normal time. It seems like it should work. Instead you usually get a charred mess and have to go back to the start. Or order pizza, but you know what I'm saying. So I guess it comes down to realizing that maybe everything you do now is in fact some preamble to something else down the line. The important thing to know is that it's everything along the way that makes the difference. The journey is as important as the destination.
