Everyday Canvas

Today's Reality or Tomorrow's Dream

Prompt: "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." Eleanor Roosevelt Do you agree?

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I have all the respect for Eleanor Roosevelt, but this is one of her spontaneous, offhand sayings. We cannot limit future only to people whose heads are in the clouds. Future belongs to everyone who is destined to live in it, in one way or another.

The activity of dreaming is just it. It is an activity, a wishing activity, and I am not going to mistake activity with achievement. From my point of view, the more desirable part of future, belongs to those in the present who work very hard in a smart way. I am especially partial to those who seek perfection in things they themselves do, even if perfection isn’t always possible and who they are and what they do are perfectly imperfect.

Dreams are fine. It is actually very pleasant to dream big beautiful dreams about the future, but if a person doesn’t have the means, luck, and fortitude to apply himself toward the outcome of that dream, he can dream all he wants. Not much will change in his future unless, like a lightning hit, an unexpected boon drops on him, as if the ‘deux ex machina’ of his life story. The odds of that windfall are iffy, and I can’t even say trillion to one, since I am not too familiar in counting in trillions.

Then, what’s wrong in enjoying life as it is today and taking things as they come and working hard in an intelligent, altruistic fashion in the present? Mother Teresa said, “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” The way I see it, I'd rather go with Mother Teresa's words anytime.