Tomorrow Is Promised

Ever seen that thing where people are supposed to describe you in one word? A major shout out to everyone who had enough guts to put that out there! I never really believed that people paid too much attention to me, so the first barrier for me would be getting past believing that people wouldn’t respond. The next barrier would be preparing me for what could possibly be said. I try to act appropriately at all times, but there are times when I slip and there are always my days of youthful indiscretion to talk about.

So rather than to unfairly draw you into the sorted details of my life, I selected a good quality. Everybody has some good to them. And one thing that I like about me or one word I would use to describe myself is: thinker. Now I’m not in a position to say that my thinking is always a good thing or that I always make the right choice, but it can never be said that I’m not thinking. Might not be about what somebody wants me to be thinking about, but I’m still thinking.

I really like to give thought to popular clichés to see if I can find fault or error in their logic. It’s not really that easy either. I have found that most things that have been said and passed down over the years contain truths at the core and cannot be fully debunked. Statements like a hit dog will holler. True. Sayings such as idle hands are the devil’s workshop. True. Or even what goes around comes around. True (if you don’t know you will learn). I was thinking about one today though…

“Tomorrow is not promised.”

First let me say that I believe that this quote has been altered and in societal haste to avoid condemnation and responsibility we have conveniently left out the part about us. I often hear it used almost as a warning when someone dies. You know, “live right because tomorrow is not promised”. I have even heard it used to sway a decision making process. “You might as well because tomorrow is not promised.” If I just focus on the way it’s used now then it’s being used in the wrong manner and not necessarily in a truthful manner.

I have to address the truthfulness of it first. I do not believe it. I believe that tomorrow is promised just not to me. Whatever happens, a new day is coming. I just might not be a part of it. There could be a Katrina, a Hiroshima, a 9/11, or even a Fukushima and tomorrow is coming. (That’s a hurricane, atomic bomb drop, catastrophic act of war, or a nuclear disaster). The sun could explode and refuse to shine and cast us into a death freeze but time is still going to be moving. Anything could happen, and tomorrow is going to come…just maybe not for me.

When I say the wrong manner, I mean that it should not be used as a warning to other people. It should be used as motivation for our own lives. It’s something to live by, not point out. The recognition of mortality and fear of the unknown should be enough to motivate us out of complacency and procrastination. The thought of never seeing and not being able to resolve issues with loved ones should be enough to make us all give second and third thought to those important decisions. The possibility of not being able to finish the work in life already started or to never realize the return on any investment ever made should give a whole new meaning to “whistle while you work”. Not because of the ease that the job is done with, but because of the speed and dynamic efficiency in the rate of accurate service provided. It should symbolically make a whistling noise. Now a days the verb used to describe that is “beasting”. Of course the thing to be now is a “beast.”

To ponder not having tomorrow should result in the creation of at least one motivated yet thoughtful beast on a daily basis because the truth about it is, tomorrow is promised…just not to me.