Many of the young people today claim to be living in the moment when they are really living for the moment. They frequently use 'spontaneity' as an excuse to be lazy and as a bullwark against any kind of commitment. At the same time they claim people need to do more to help people, they concentrate more for themselves. They are in pursuit of something that, even if it yields pleasure, will not yield happiness.
My maternal grandmother still has, I confirmed this Sunday, the following quote hung on her refridgerator. It is one of the things that has transformed my life and values. It reads:
The chief cause for failure and unhappiness in life is trading what we want most for what we want at the moment.
This is the real danger of living in and for the moment. What it means is that too many of the youth make a decision that might be right in the moment but is not right for the duration. Too many of us don't think things through to the end, or at least far enough out, to realize what the ripple effect will be. That very concern is why people who care about me worry that I write this blog, because once it's up here I cannot take it back. It's also partly why I have thoughts I have not published to the world if I have expressed them to anyone at all.
Our decisions have unexpected consequences. String theory teaches that everything done affects other things. I love the exchange from the movie IQ where Einstein's friends are sitting around and notice a change in the universe because "somewhere an atom collided with another atom and so forth until it collided with us". This moment is connected with so many others, and what we do today lays a foundation for what is possible for us tomorrow.
Eventually there comes a point in every man's life where he must decide between what is easy and what is right. In many instances, you may be surrounded by friends at this moment; in some, you may not. At a previous job, I was present for a moment of conflict during working hours. In the circle around me, there were high-ranking members of Human Resources, high-ranking members of my Faith, and high-ranking people who believed themselves to be high-ranking at least in their own minds. When the moment of conflict came, I looked at all of these as if to say, "Don't force me to do what you ought to do" only to see them hang their heads and pretend not to notice. I stepped forward, spoke my peace, and took the risk. I have managed to do well in spite of that moment or perhaps because of it.
At the end of the day, you are the only person who spends 24/7 with yourself. You have to sleep with yourself, talk with yourself, eat with yourself, listen to yourself, and live with yourself. Other people may come and go, at least for a while, because they're in different places doing different things for different reasons during at least some portion of the day. You have to live with your conscience, and you have to sleep on what you do with the day.
Wickedness never was happiness. You cannot find true peace and happiness in doing what is not truth. It might be right for you, but if it is not a true principle, it isn't really the right thing. I find it kind of illuminating that some of the people who claim others have to sacrifice are themselves very selfish to maintain that which benefits them most. There is a misbegotten notion that you can love your neighbor without loving yourself and that acting as if you did is the same as really truly loving them. While doing may lead to being, being always leads to doing. Pretending to be something might make it true, but the long and short of the long form is that you find out what really matters based on what becomes permanent.
We are not living in a moment or for a moment. We are living for something greater than ourselves. It's not a government program or an institution or even a movement. We are living for truth, and the only way we find happiness is in an honest search for the truth. Many of the people who live for the moment are looking for a piece of the truth, the only piece they are willing to accept and use. Be truth, be for truth, and things will work out best for you in this moment and every other moment, because they are and will be connected, and what happens to and with and for you tomorrow is influenced by what you do today.
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