The Indomitable Power of Tomorrow

 From the Broadway musical, "Annie", we hear the first two stanzas:

Tomorrow

"The sun'll come out

Tomorrow

Bet your bottom dollar

That tomorrow there'll be sun

Just thinkin' about

Tomorrow

Clears away the cobwebs

And the sorrow 'til there's none"

Later in the song we soon hear not only the inevitability of tomorrow but that it is always just a day away.  What power it has, simply because it keeps coming no matter how today went. No matter how many bad yesterdays there were, tomorrow persistently shows up. We know to expect that no matter how dark the night is, it will soon turn from black to gray as each dawn - like a stage curtain - is drawn by some mysterious force until it is completely tucked away; tomorrow - here it comes.

What power! But wait. We know to expect tomorrow but do every living thing think the same way? Well, let's see.  Do animals think about tomorrow the way we do? When a robin starts building a nest, it must be thinking about tomorrow, right? Mother robin must know to expect that many tomorrows later she will lay eggs and many tomorrows of uninterrupted incubation after that, they will hatch. And for many more tomorrows the chicks will need to be fed and more tomorrows later they will leave the nest. 

No. Except for us, all other living things do not think about tomorrow.  At least, not in the same way that we do. You see, all biological blueprints upon which all living things depend are exactly just that.  Blueprints. Step-by-each succeeding step plan for a biological system to function and survive. It does require an optimal amount of intelligence, such as those among the higher order of living things, for species to survive and thrive but simple organisms from bacteria to colonies of ants and termites have been around for millions of years of yesterdays without any of them thinking - not even for a single moment - or contemplating about even a single tomorrow.

We do.  The only species that does.  While 99.9% of all living things remember - a prerequisite to survival - we are the only ones who think about what to expect, what to do, and plan for tomorrow. Not only just the typical twenty four hours from now tomorrow but thirty of those, three hundred sixty five, and many more. 

Let's have this hypothetical question to ask ourselves on what we shall choose between two given options. (A) Granted a wish to be anywhere in the world today - Australia, Timbuktu, Paris, or Mt. Everest, anywhere; or, (B) Know everything that will happen tomorrow, today. (A) or (B)?  

It's (B), isn't it? All of (A) anyone can do, when he or she gets to see today what lottery numbers to get for tomorrow's drawing, right?.  Not 100% of all of us will pick (B) for many reasons - perhaps mostly philosophical, even moral - but it  is a good "bet" that most will overwhelmingly pick (B). Hypothetically, of course.

Such is the power of tomorrow.  But like all superpowers - from the legend of Achilles in Greek mythology to Kal-El from the pages of DC comics, every superpower has a kryptonite! We'll get to this but let's first digress for a bit.  Did you know that: 

"Superman's real name is Kal-El, son of Jor-El. The suffix El means “of God” in Hebrew, with Kal-El defined as “Voice of God”. Before Krypton's doom, Kal-El's parents put him in a Moses-like basket, sending him down the Nile of intergalactic space until he landed safely on Earth".

Now, you know. So, today is super important. It is where the action is and we would like to think that it is going according to plan from yesterday. It is important to remember yesterday but not to dwell too much on why and what didn't happen or work today because tomorrow we get another chance. Yesterday was for the record books, today is action time, albeit every present moment is ephemeral, but today is when we get to do anything. It is not to be diminished, naturally, but why should tomorrow have the superpower?

Well, for one thing, we know we started from somewhere - at some finite beginning. Today, as often the case, is quick to become yesterday. Tomorrow we cannot know but it has many, if not infinitely so, possibilities. Yesterday we knew, today we know what to do, at least we think we do, but tomorrow will lead to all kinds of what we would like to think we can do.

Let's for a moment agree with the saying, "Life is a journey".  I suggest that we travel light. We must only have carry-on luggage to a bare minimum. We should not travel with carry-on luggage that challenges the maximum limit but more importantly, never to  have any excess baggage that needs to be checked-in, at all.

Checked-in baggage from our past - usually memories of what could have been, regrets, and remorse - is tomorrow's kryptonite. To be clear, tomorrow is not the kryptonite.  It is what we bring along that could be. In our carry-on luggage are the happy memories, our hopes, our plans and aspirations. Yesterday, all the innumerable yesterdays make up the exposed frames on a spool of film, tomorrow is yet to be filled in. Put another way, yesterday was a  cashed check and spent, tomorrow is a blank check.

That is the indomitable superpower of tomorrow. The options are plenty, but what we write on that check will determine what we can spend. More importantly, it is not so much what we can spend but the choices we will spend it on. Make the superpower of tomorrow count.