I read this phrasing in a Facebook post. It caught my eye, but I didn’t understand what it meant at first glance.

The past has value. I can learn from it, but I can’t change it. At some point in human history, things changed very slowly. The past, the present, and the future were pretty much the same.

Since long ago, the rate of change in society has been increasing. Without going too far back, the Industrial Revolution is an example of a sudden and rapid increase in the rate of change. For those living at the time, it must have been very threatening.

I think of young families with children looking ahead to decide how to earn a living. Many of the jobs in their future didn’t exist in their early teen years.

I’m speculating now. On a continuum, some would dig in and go for traditional work. Unfortunately, mechanization would erase many opportunities that traditionally existed. At the other end of the continuum, some teens would be willing to take a chance and find a way to earn a living without any guide or guild to help show the way.

And the rest would fall somewhere in between.

I think we are in this rapid period of change, in which many opportunities for earning income have yet to be invented.

So, to return to the title of this Blog, I understand what it means.

The past is a helpful reference point to keep in mind. I can learn from it, and it can impact the decisions I need to make today. I don’t need to decide on a career choice, but I have other age-appropriate decisions to make. I have childrean and grandchildren with a lot of time left on their clocks and many life-altering decisions.

However, there are better places to take up residence than in the past. It should, at best, be for very temporary housing.

The future is where I will be living, and I need to figure out how to navigate those waters for an optimum outcome.

Please give this a bit of a think. Do you struggle with the comfort of the past with the uncertainty of the future? Is there a particular facet of your life that has an alarming uncertainty for you? On a positive note, are there new technologies, insights or concepts that could help draw you toward making an active decision versus waiting passively to see what happens?

I’m curious about your thoughts. Please share your bit of a think in the comment section below. It will come to me for approval before posting.

Photo by AI (Request an image showing the transition from Industrial Revolution times to the not-too-distant future.)

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glenn.walmsley@icloud.com