Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Midnight on the Firing Line

There is ever increasing worry that once you make a plan, that there is really no ability to guide or control it. I was once asked how could one plan a community/society/etc in a capitalistic environment. Truly you can't. There is inherent freedom to make choices, mistakes or innovations in our environment or society in which nothing can absolutely control. Therefore we're back to the guiding question - how can one plan?

You have to rely on the decisions that you make. You have to let go of the points in your life where the pain of a decision has cost you emotional time. Where the plan has failed. The organic nature and chaos of the event can only seek to control you through embedding into your memory. You have to look at the point as an event where two conical surfaces meet - each ever expanding outwards from the event. One leading to the past. The other to the future. The choices we make determine where on the conical surface our lives take.

Memory is our ability to mark time of the past. Planning is our attempt to mark time of the future.

There are many memories that I would like to remove - in such a way that is similar to the movie "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." I have too many emotions tied up with them. In another vein, I have too many daydreams that distract me from getting things accomplished - becoming more successful - tapping into my creative side which has been buried quite significantly.

As a futurist or a planner, I cannot allow myself to believe in predestination. If I allowed myself to believe that there is a pre-determined destiny for any of us then looking to the future or attempting to plan for it doesn't seem to be very worthwhile. We succeed or fail based on our decisions within our own path. I will take or choose not to take a path. I may (and will fail) - but it will be of my own choosing.