Getting to Future

This keeps me up at night. Usually in the middle of the night. The question that pops up over and over again – what do people think about the future? How do they move into it? With intention or fear and dread? I think the latter is the most common answer; but I don’t really know that.

Thinking back on my own life I know I had fears of the next day’s events unfolding; what I was responsible for and how my preparation would play out and affect the outcome. Would the results be positive? Would they be appreciated? Would they provide a platform for the following day in this matter? Or would the ‘issue’ go on and on for a few weeks?

For the most part things worked out. Slowly at first and then more smoothly. Of course the connection to previous actions helped smooth the surface operations; connecting actions and facts builds process, orderliness. That is appreciated by people involved in unresolved procedural matters.

Getting to know people with behavioral problems offered a better view of this interest in ‘future’. Alcoholics self medicate with alcohol. The question is: what is the object of their medicating? Why do they suffer? Speaking with them as they plumb their angst we find resentments, regrets, and fear of the unknown. Much of the unknown is a lack of confidence in themselves. Wondering about their own worth they build up fear and dread. Low self esteem?

Getting the alcoholic to accept self without judgment is achieved over time. Replacing low self-esteem with neutral feelings is a start. None of us can control much of life. We want to and often think we can, but in the end we do not control life. Life happens. We live it, in good times and bad, with confidence or not. Accepting that simple fact is the start of good mental health.

From that point an individual can examine life’s elements, the good ones and the bad, those that excite, and those that cast dread. In the end, though, the healthy mind knows how to process these elements and make sense of them. Making sense of these things allows the individual to work with the elements and create other elements, new options, inventions of opportunity. These very small transactions in the mind are the seeds of the future.

We often say “curiosity feeds the active mind.” The active mind goes on to what? The future, of course! Or at least that’s my thesis.

Think about it. How many people do you know who don’t think about the future of things because they simply don’t know about those issues, or don’t want to? They avoid such talk. Such things are unknown and uncomfortable to them. Pie in the sky talk bothers them. 

But change that into wondering what might happen and asking myself how I could affect the happenings, places us into a dream process, a ‘what if’ sequence of thinking. That is not something we hold people responsible for. It is a free act and a free use of the mind and tools of logic. It can turn into a game. It is fun.

And for people who truly want to catch a glimpse of ‘what can be’, this exercise of the mind is often a sheer act of creativity.

Think of the artist starting with a lump of clay; hours later it is an object of beauty, function and purposefulness. It is a creation of thought. The artist has made a statement in something real that once was merely an idea in his mind. An expression of the inner voice. A creative outcome.

Such are moments of future as well. Now it is not here, a moment later it is present. From present tense to future tense. A blip of an idea. And now something exists.

I work with teenage drug addicts. Most are in rehab unwillingly. They would rather use drugs because it became a way of coping with life. It was their way to feel OK about being of the ‘hostile world’. I think most of us believe drug use is an escape. But from what? Well that is the question, isn’t it?

To be successfully rehabbed, the drug addict has to follow a process of discovering himself free of the drugs to begin the process of building a realistic model of himself living in the world.  

A rehab program keeps drugs out of the hands of the patient. Testing randomly for the presence of drugs keeps the patient honest; those who sneak use of drugs are caught and challenged to change or leave the program. Yes, there are failures; stubborn cases in which the patient was not reached. But that is a matter of time.

Time for the person to encounter himself squarely and honestly. Once done we are on the way toward better health. Not done? Drug use will undoubtedly continue. Or the alcoholic will resume drinking. Addiction is addiction no matter the substance. The behavior feeding the addiction is the issue to uncover. And that is deep within the patient.

I observed an addict the other night. Intelligent, young, vigorous. A blank sheet of emotion. He states what he fears, and then does nothing about it. Facing that is worse than the outcome of using drugs. So back to drugs he goes. Talking about options does not move him. He is adamant about not facing the problems head-on. He just doesn’t do it; won’t even envision it. Or rather, the envisioning offers no good image; so he continues to avoid it entirely. Puts on headphones and listens to music, smokes a little weed, or pops a pill. The encounter has been avoided and life is OK. Not perfect, but OK.

The future does not offer enough reward for this person. He cannot fathom a future of good, just bad; so he avoids it at all costs.

In time the answer will be nothingness, death. That is the only logical outcome for such a person. It is a slow spiral that draws him down, down, down. And finally darkness is permanent.

Lighting the spark that changes his thought process is elusive. So, too, creating the future. For those of us of normal mind, such is cause for excitement. We are bringing good tomorrows into being. And that is good for everyone, not just us.

Why don’t we all relish this way of being?

May 22, 2017