Rambling Ignorance About The Past and Future

I had a dream last night that I was back working at the airline. I kind of miss that job and I’ve been thinking a lot about it lately. Probably because I’m currently writing a piece on how I transitioned out of the airline world into my new career.

Perhaps it’s only in my memory, but I enjoyed the job. Sure, there were rough patches… things weren’t always amazing. But there are memories that I’ll keep until I hit Alzheimer’s.

I remember hanging out in Vegas bars sipping “the best martinis in the world.” I remember walking along the Persian Gulf watching as families, different in almost every way from my mine, played in the grass with their children. I remember the crowds at Oktoberfest. I remember the traffic in Beijing. I remember the drunken chaos of Rio streets at 3 in the morning…

There is nothing quite so deceptive as nostalgia. In many ways, it’s dangerous. When you’re caught looking backward for too long you can forget how to move forward. When you’re stuck trying to recreate the past, you can’t focus on how to create the future.

And what does that future hold? Is it bankruptcy and chaos and the collapse of Democracy? Is it world war and violence and a dog-eat-dog world?

Or is it picnics in the park and smiling children. Is it wealth and luxury and equality of all people?

I don’t know. And neither do you. And neither do the news outlets who are telling us what will happen tomorrow.

We look to the past: for certainty. But the only certain thing is that the future won’t be like the past. So it’s time to get my head out of the clouds.

It may be because I’m young, and naive and don’t know that everything is going to be worse tomorrow than it was yesterday because that's the way it always is.

But if we’re going to get through today, we have to decide what to create for tomorrow.