being somewhere else

Ever notice how we seem to spend a lot of time being somewhere else?

Recently I've been noticing how much I do this. Perhaps noticing more than usual, or just doing it more than usual, not sure which. Today always seems to be lived with reference to (a) some day that hasn't happened yet, or (b) some day from the past.

The thing that both (a) and (b) have in common, of course, is that they're inaccessible. I can't get back to the past, and I can't jump ahead to the future. Kind of like my four-and-a-half-minute walk to the bus stop every weekday morning: down the street / turn right / up to the entrance to the park / through the park / across the soccer field / down to the bus shelter. Can't be done in three seconds, no matter how hard I train. It always has to be done one step at a time.

So what's with all this concentration on the past or the future? The thing I always seem to forget is that five or ten or twenty years ago this was the future that I was looking forward to, and I'm in it now. Conversely, five or ten or twenty years from now --- if I make it that far! --- this will be the past that I look back on. So, by induction, it seems like all days are the same after all. Guess I oughta spend more time in the here and now after all.