The Pull of Past, Present and Future

I am looking for a trajectory of motion. Going somewhere from somewhere. Motion. Travel. Progress from point A to point B. A trajectory, path, route, itinerary.

Know what I mean? Well, maybe you don’t. I need to give you more information then.

Sitting in the present – the here and now – I am doing just that – sitting. Oh, OK, maybe I’m standing, but I am stationary. Not moving, just looking out to see what I can see, feel what I can feel, smell and taste what is there. Experiencing the here and now is static. The moment I move to another position I am in another moment, another here and now. Moving from one place to another is motion and it has left the present; it is the past in that split second.

Thinking of the past we might note historical movement from one era to another, or how one era is different from another period in time, and we can even plot how the eras came to be analyzing the stories and actions that came before each era, each story. That is historical movement when we study cause, effect, result. It isn’t real motion, but you can plot a trajectory in all of that.

The past has motivation for us – or pull – if we note things we either want to re-create or avoid in the future. We have yearning then for something remembered either hideous or beautiful. Will this yearning be enough to ‘move’ us to do something in the here and now? Will we work to create something we think is of value and should be present in the lives of our contemporaries?

Maybe so; but the past is not in motion; the present is. And then only for a moment as it becomes the future.

The present has little pull on us. We either like what we are experiencing in the present and wish it to continue or we wish to avoid the unpleasantness that is visiting us at the moment. So we behave differently to make the good last or the bad disappear.  That is all we can do in the present. Experience it and adjust.

The future, however, is another thing entirely. It is not real, for one thing. It is potential. It is the blank slate upon which we can write a story of our own choosing. We can make it happen in some ways. Or we can observe it happen without interaction with it. Or we can analyze the hell out of it from a perspective based on the past.

I rather like conjuring what the future can be or ought to be. Yes, there is a value orientation to the ‘ought’ but then that’s what dreams are made of. We get to choose what is important to us. From those elements we construct what we want and plan for it, take action toward achievement and all the rest as we build a trajectory of motion toward and into the future.

Now I must admit I find this fascinating, absorbing, and enriching all at the same moment. Packed with possibility and portent. Imagining the future is exciting. It has propulsion built into it. Perhaps that is the part that is exhilarating.

At any rate, let us look at a few things we can imagine for the future.

1. Shape of economy

1. What should the business environment or economy look like in five years, or ten?
2. What would this ‘view’ require from us to make it happen? How much of this is already happening and pulling or pushing us whether we realize it or not?
3. What of all of this is to be engaged and what avoided? What is the rationale of each? Surely there are good points to be made for each and every point in need of support or not. 

2. Role and condition of public education

      a.  What are the measurable outcomes of the system? Are they good, bad or ugly?

      b.  What would we like the outcomes to be? What is good, and what is better? Or

           even best? How about the whole concept of ‘life-long learning’? 

      c. What should be happening if the system were performing good or better? What systemic 

          processes need to be working for such results? 

      d. How can we design an entirely fresh public education system? And who has the credentials to 

          do this? 

      e. Can we develop a new educational system while the old one is still working?

6. When finished with the design, how do we get it approved and resourced?
7. And finally, how do we implement the new system and make full use of the talents from the old system in adopting the new?
8. Will the new system that replaces the old be more efficient with public resources? 

3. Global peace and prosperity

      a.   Are most of the nations of the world living in peace or not?

      b.   Are those living in peace experiencing prosperity relative to their standards?

      c.   What are the root causes of lack of peace in the nations so affected?

      d.   What can the nations of the world do to help those not in peace?

      e.   What do all nations need to do to share the wealth and build prosperity across all

            nations? Is this doable and desirable?

f.        Are education resources present in these nations to sustain prosperity once

      gained?

g.       How do all nations share educational resources for nations in need?

4. Ecological health of the planet

      a.   What is the ecological health of the planet using international standards of

            measurement?

2.  What is the priority of each health measure to be repaired, attended to? Which

is the most important one to fix first, second, etc.?

3. How is each dealt with successfully?
4. Who in the global community is capable of doing this work? Perhaps an international team?

5. Who pays and how does all of this get coordinated internationally? 

Are these enough for you and I to agree that gazing into the future and dreaming about it has practical value? Does all of this suggest that we have a lot of work to do to prepare for the future? And have fun doing it while it is in progress?

I think this sounds fun, exciting and very purposeful. Rather than sitting around complaining about something we are actually engaged in the doing of it. How about that?

Now for the big challenge: how do we get people in our own nation, let alone the rest of the global community, involved in making the future happen in this manner? How many of you are ready to lend a hand to this prospect?

If you are ready, when do we start?

July 27, 2016