Seeing Tomorrow Beats Yesterday || LOH #162

If I had the choice between being able to see the future or see the past, I would choose to see the future. There are a few key reasons why I think this would be more useful and meaningful.

First, seeing the future would allow me to prepare for what's coming. If I got glimpses of a big event happening soon that will impact my life, I could take steps to get ready. For example, if I saw that heavy rains are going to cause flooding in my city next month, I could stock up on emergency supplies and make preparations to stay safe. I wouldn't be caught off guard when hard times hit.

Knowing ahead of time about positive events could also help me make the most of good opportunities. If I saw a vision that I'm going to meet my future business partner at a conference next year, I could start educating myself on investing now to be ready for that relationship. Or if I saw an invention that will become hugely popular in a decade, I may work to get involved in helping develop it early on.

Seeing ahead gives me more power to shape my direction. It helps me set smarter goals with an eye on what challenges or openings are emerging over my personal horizon. I can course correct easier if I know I'm headed the wrong way towards a pitfall down the road. It's like having a map to lifelines and pitfalls before reaching them.

Meanwhile, seeing only the past doesn't help me alter my future in any concrete way. I may gain insight into how my previous choices rippled into today’s reality. But the past can’t be changed, only learned from. Peeks at history feel less actionable or empowering when aiming to intentionally build my life. They provide context, but no clear path ahead.

Of course I realize trying to manipulate or control every detail of destiny seems foolish, given fate’s wild unpredictability. But even glimpses of rough probabilities ahead would give my present more sense of direction. I may still need to weather twists I didn’t anticipate coming. But foresight helps me set smarter goals and align behaviors in flow with headwinds or tailwinds I see brewing over distant horizons.

Beyond personal preparation benefits, catching glimpses of the future could also help me support causes greater than myself too. If I foresaw emerging diseases or natural disasters impacting vulnerable groups, I could advocate and donate to relief efforts early. I may attempt warning leaders about threats on the horizon that could save lives if addressed proactively.

Say I get a vision showing me the negative environmental impacts compounding generations down the line from pollution and climate change. I might passionately campaign for cleaner energy and atomize more folks to the perils looming past their line of sight. Without some view beyond, it’s easy to ignore gradual threats until permanent damage gets done that could have been averted or buffered against.

Of course there are ethical questions around trying to reshape outcomes you see in any significant way as just one person. Perhaps names or dates always shift subtly so absolute facts prove unreliable. But just perceiving probabilities and patterns headed society’s way equips me to play a more thoughtful role shepherding progress.

I certainly don’t view myself as any genius with all the solutions. But given how easy it is to get narrowly focused on immediate gratifications, having one eye perpetually peering farther down destiny’s winding road could inspire more wise and compassionate choices today. I may think twice before chasing certain careers knowing economic disruption looms ahead affecting that industry in radical ways unforeseen by my short-sighted peers.

Overall, while knowledge of the past offers valuable perspective, clear views of the roads ahead drive more conscious navigation each day. The rearview mirror provides helpful context on how I arrived, but the windshield showing me curves coming up commands my attention if I aim to steer life responsibly. We have little power to redo history. But as visionaries like MLK showed, forecasting future milestones can better frame urgent priorities demanding focused action now to manifest that dream.

Of course no one can fully predict complex fate or control every variable that might impact upcoming events. But catching some glimpses beyond today’s horizons - enough to make out rough shapes and trajectories brewing - deeply informs how I invest current energy. My present moment becomes richer when I have visceral touches understanding destiny’s weavings in some humble way. Walking into the unknown future blindly just feels far more aimless and disconnected from the universal tapestry that links all things.

So for me, visions of the road ahead pull my heart more than nostalgic glances backwards. The past sets context for who I am and how I came to be. But the future stands ever-fluid with opportunity to nudge myself and society to greater heights through conscious awareness and compassion. Even faint flickers of insight into probabilities, patterns and potential surprises amplifies my personal sense of purpose and ability to play a meaningful role in these complex times.