Dear Future

Author’s note: The next several articles are letters addressed to intangible ideas, people, and concepts. Today’s article is addressed to the Future.

Dear Future:

I have thought a lot about You over the last 60 years and often wondered what secrets were awaiting me. At times I pleaded with You for a small glimpse of what it was You had in store for me, but it always fell on deaf ears. Many nights were spent tossing and turning in anticipation of what You would soon unfold shortly after the morning sun peeked over the horizon.

Honestly Future, for as much time as I spent fussing over You, I never really thought about what I would say to You were I given the chance. I am thankful and grateful You have granted me this opportunity and I promise to pour my heart out with its most intimate thoughts.

It’s difficult to know who or what I am addressing, for You are not a specific person nor are You a country. You are even more than our planet. Even to attempt at defining You is futile. I only know one thing for sure, Future, and that is You will always be there.

Whatever or whoever will accompany or complement You is irrelevant. There is no negotiating involved. You, Future, are the one certainty on which we can all depend to be welcoming what may come.

If there is one idea I could implore to permanently alter how You unfold, it would be that You were constantly vigilant about showing kindness.

It’s difficult to conceive how humanity has wandered so for away from this basic principle and has adopted opposing and defiant ideals which only multiply the misery and despondency of many souls.

If anyone has been a witness to the atrocities, it is Your distant cousin, History. It has seen countless tragedies, hardships, and pestilence, and while never having had complete control over its own treatment, many of those catastrophes were caused by a complete lack of and disdain for kindness.

Without concern for their fellow brothers and sisters, humans only aim was to accumulate what they believed would find them happiness. But instead, it brought them frustration, emptiness, and pain. Yet these results never urged them to search for an ideal solution and ironically, they believed the only remedy for their continuing anguish was to employ the same behavior which delivered their misery in the first place.

Even as Your cousin History designated certain people to document these events and record these horrible atrocities to warn the coming generations, humans turned a blind eye and purposely failed to learn from their past mistakes.

I am beckoning You, Future, not to allow this to happen to You. No matter how difficult it gets, I beseech You to fight against the temptation to use strongarm tactics and let kindness direct Your actions, motives, and path moving forward. If anyone or anything can learn from the mistakes we humans refuse to see, it is definitely You. Make kindness Your calling card; even in those times when it is undeserved.

You see Future, when You practice kindness, You will also be kind to Yourself. That will be much needed because many humans have disregarded You. They have ravaged Nature’s resources, and instead of being grateful for what was given, they pillaged, violated, and destroyed what Nature had so generously provided; all for the sake of worldly and temporary gain. In their haste, they always neglect to be kind to You.

The attraction of earthly gain has blinded them to the collective and collateral damage they’ve been levying on You, silencing Your cries and covering their ears to Your warnings. Kindness never enters their thoughts, and regarding You, Future, their conceit is so thick they cannot allow themselves to have any concern or respect You.

If there were some way Future, You could warn those who come before you, to embrace kindness and be compassionate to everyone and especially those who are less fortunate. If this were possible, Your chance of being brighter will significantly increase.

Kindness bears many side effects as well. It helps in being grateful and thankful. It reminds us we do not need compensation or recognition for it. Kindness is also quite contagious. If it persists in large enough numbers, it shines a condemning light on those who refuse it and uncovers their selfish and greedy schemes.

For some reason Future, humans continue to turn their heads and refuse to see the signs Nature continually unveils. It’s as though they believe somehow their ingenuity will outsmart nature; however, this has never been disproven more than in 2020.

Future, we are not in control of You. You have many more powerful allies and no matter how hard we try, we will never be Your master.

I am incredibly grateful to have this opportunity to speak with You Future. And when You greet our descendants – whether they are traveling in flying vehicles or on bruised and battered feet – I beg You always to be kind. You have no need for fame, yet You are the envy of billions. You have no need for fortune, yet You are richer than anyone could possibly imagine.

If You, Future, were bestowed with the power of foresight, I implore You to review with Your distant cousin History and discover the ways kindness could have dramatically changed who You presently are. Gaze into Yourself and imagine how much less suffering would be occurring and how humans would be embracing You by honoring Nature and coexisting with it to make this a better world for everything on and in it.

Thanks again for this wonderful opportunity to leave my mark and just maybe, inspire You to always be something everyone treasures and never stops looking forward to Your arrival. I bid You a wonderful and kind future.

My thanks Santiago Lacarta on Unsplash to for the beautiful picture and I look forward to your thoughts.