“I may have too much, but I’ll take my chances, because God stopped keeping score.” – George Michael, Praying for Time.

I’ve been thinking about the future.

Yours. Mine and Ours.

And when you think about tomorrow, you get trapped in an endless stream of todays, which are really just residual, leftover and re-run yesterdays.  And even though in our most high-minded and noble ways, we think that everything is linear, a straight shooting arrow of truth and trust, and always moving forward (wherever that is), and really, the real reality, the one we didn’t invent (or did we?) is that the universe is i-n-f-i-n-i-t-e space, and thus, logically, this is impossible.

And that’s the trouble with the Logos, which of course is God active in creation, revelation, and redemption. (This was decreed at the First Council of Constantinople, in 381).

And now our logos exists in corporate logos, where we still tap divine power of saints and symbols with the VPs of marketing (can you think of St, Paul) who still think relying on the ancient gods Nike, Starbuck and Versace (Medusa.) is good business, as it always has been. And they are probably right.

And all of this is jury-clad proof that what is old, is new again, because we really probably only have a few good ideas that we tend to re-invent, re-imagine, and re-brand.

In fact, we are still living in world dominated by mythology, then, now and next.

Yes. Everything happens all at once in the exact same place. It has to. That’s the story.

That’s right, we are all connected in this venture of cosmic delights, hyper-drive insights and inter-galactic life rights, and now is the time we look at ourselves, together.

You see, the future is, as always, on its way.  

It slipped a surreal subway token into the proverbial slot, and boarded the bus, and is now on the tarmac of Tao, always knowing there really is no turning back. You can pretend that it’s not coming, but the future is never late. In fact, it always shows up exactly on time. Because it is always, always.

And that’s the paradox of it all.

How can we be constantly running out of something that is not only in infinite supply, but self-replenishes, in our mind map of never-ending now? And don’t even get me started on real estate prices in New York. But, let’s focus on the future.

I was thinking about the future, years ago. And it looks nothing like I had imagined. So, let’s re-trace our storied and starry eyed steps.

The world is now on the brink of some sort of massive psychic apocalypse.

The good kind, the kind that makes you kinder. You can feel it in the air. The sparks of the revolution are beginning to assemble and the brain begins to bargain with itself for change. You can hear it on what is left of the radio, in the music that mirrored our inner-most feelings, the emotional tuner of the human condition.

We tend to let politicians and CEOs run the world and make our decisions for us, because we worship money over meaning, but that will eventually change too.

It is prophetic and poetic.

At this moment, this is it, and we were ready to make our way to a new era of life as we know it, finally, after much enigmatic engineering and social suffering, of mythical proportions, that will give us everything we want.

This is the new time of the new gods of technology, who are ready to set up shop on the new Mount Olympus next to new icons and gods of Google, Apple and Amazon.

We are still getting used to the new normal of instant divine connection via digital transformation, and that is unleashing a new blast broadcast of our shared mind. The good parts and the scary part, too. This is the true eco-system now.

We are in an era of unbridled communication. And this brings new opportunity for myth amplification which will give even more power to the providers of power.

It is like the free love movement of the 60s, that brought with it severe long-term complications that no one gave much forethought to, while enjoying its multiple and free-wheeling fruits.

But, that is another story. Like this one.

This is the extended morning after.

And in its wake, we are woke.

Most of it driven by intuition, instinct and imagination. But, perhaps there are bigger forces are work. Similar to the ones that blew through this place in the aforementioned scene setter.

The formation of the universe is still being drilled by the spiritual scientists who really are not sure what they are looking for.  

It is a rebuilding time. For me, too.

Still, somewhere in between the anxiety, pain and fear of the other shoe dropping, the second act, and the Karmic clean-up crew, there is enough raw hope to give the sense that yes, despite all the evidence, there will be a future.

And that can sometimes be more powerful than the force that gave it rise. And maybe that is the point. But maybe not. Who am I to know these things?

The celestial philosophical heat can unleash a kind of blinding light and magic, that broadcasts itself to everyone in its reach, and that kind of contagion has been the story of humanity, I would guess. For in every account of history – the ongoing human narrative of war and peace – the Sun has always been there.

I wonder how things may change if the Sun – the source of enLIGHTenment – ever decides to take a breather. Would we take a breath?

But, in the final equation of right and wrong, sing and song, it was made this way.

For better or worse. For cure or curse.

And right now, it is just about to walk into your frame of perception, mostly uninvited, unexpected and profoundly under-estimated.  And it will change everything you thought you knew about tomorrow.

But here we are, and there it is.

The future.

Author(s)

  • Paul is: a writer, past academic dean, national affairs advisor, conference founder and public broadcasting advocate.