365 Reasons I Love Costa Rica
Reason #305: Vision versus Hindsight
I think it is better to drive one’s life much in the way one drives an automobile. That is, with a little bit of hindsight and a whole lot of vision. Sometimes circumstances cloud that vision, like darkness, fog, or a dirty windshield. In those cases we might have to rely on tools outside of our own senses, like headlights, fog-lamps and a healthy set of windshield wipers. Isn’t life a lot like that? That is, we need excellent forward vision to maneuver it well, but sometimes our vision is not enough and we have to rely on tools provided by others, or even machines that help us more accurately predict what is coming and deal with it when it arrives. Trying to move forward in life without vision is like driving your car only looking backwards through the rear view mirror, at where you’ve been, without having a clue to where it is you are going. Yes some people, maybe even most people, seem to at least try to do it that way. They will even say things like well this and that always happened before, so why would you expect anything different tomorrow. Statements like that always really get under my skin. Why would you ever expect tomorrow to be like today? It is not. Of course, the extent to which it is not (like yesterday) in large part depends on our vision. The better vision we have, the more accurately we can predict and even shape the future. It is really an amazing thing if you think about it. Our vision, or our ability to see a picture of what the future will look like, actually seems to play a role in bringing it about. Sounds a bit weird, like “spooky action at a distance,” but it is true. Or at least from my experience it is. Of course, without vision the past does seem to repeat itself over and over and over. Life becomes just a series of “going through the motions.” We eat, we work, we sleep, we drink, we die and so on and so forth it goes. Nothing out of the ordinary ever seems to happen, and when it does it is usually quiet tragic. Doesn’t sound like a very inspired life, does it? So why not at least try this vision thing? Close your eyes and imagine what you would like the future to look like. Do so on a repeated basis and you might just find yourself taking directed action and then, miraculously, the forces of heaven and earth seem to conspire with you to actually create it. You could call it a miracle, or you could simply call it a life worth living.
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Intriguing…undoubtedly food for thought. I hope you do not mind if I pass this on to a few other folks I know.