One great attraction of drugs and alcohol _ not to mention fanatic obsessions of all types _ is that they restrict our worries about things distant in time and space. This glass of beer is great, I enjoy talking to you, I can forget the awful boss and the deadline next Friday.
This is, after all, a culture that glorifies planning for the future by learning from the past. Our media carps on the long-term effects of this and that, science claims to be learning about the birth of the universe. We are aware of floods in Tahiti, and next year’s possible shortage of coffee or computer chips.
Imagination is a fine thing, but the farther away it gets from where we are actually standing, the more it can splinter into possible but increasingly uncertain fragments. We can agree that there is a tree in front of us right now, even argue if it is healthy or beautiful, but it is truly there. What will be here a year or 10 or 100 years from now? Opinions differ.
One mark of sanity is to live primarily focused on a shared immediate existence. One problem is that our electronic social media do not do that and by definition promote insanity.
It is important to wake up each day and really try to taste the coffee, smell the roses, notice the sky. And to try to maintain some of that awareness all day long.
HuntingtonHarborThoughts 