Ah, yes, the good old to-do list. I have done them at various time in my life. I did them when I had a busy day planned. I would list up to about 8 things I wanted to do on that particular day. There would be a lot of basic things I needed to do but none of them were like life changing things to do. I don’t know if there was anything on those lists that never got done. I may not have gotten it done that day, but then I would do it the next day. I don’t read many of the responses to these prompts, but I can’t even begin to fathom what might be on a list that never gets done. I suppose if on your to do list is to mug an old lady and rob her of the money she is carrying, then hopefully that never gets done. I guess the other question would be how many times do you put this particular thing on your to do list before you realize that you are never going to do it. Would you write this thing on 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 50, or 100 to do lists before you would say ” What the hell am I doing? I am never going to do that. Here is example of what I would consider a pretty typical to do list. 1. Clean golf clubs (Now you know that one is getting done). 2. Clean golf shoes. 3. Go Grocery shopping. 4. Cut the grass. 5. Go to Apple Store to have them look at phone. 6. Clean spare bedroom closet. 7. Take car to carwash. 8. Make Dinner Reservation for next Saturday. Now if any of that does not get done on that day then the next day it will. This is not goal planning. It is a to do list. What would a list look like that would never get done. 1. Play the lottery until you are homeless. 2. Water the lawn until it becomes a swamp, or they take you away. 3. Put a new addition on the house, all by yourself. 4. Take as many showers as it takes to make drying off a painful experience where your prune like skin is just peeling off. 5. Try to do 10,000 tweets in one day. 6. Contribute your life savings to the Donald Trump defense fund. 7. Try to jog back and forth across the country as many times as Forrest Gump did. 8. Last but not least go to an all you can eat buffet and continue eating until they have to call the police. Now there is a to-do list that is never going to get done. At least, I hope so. The only one I have a doubt about is the 1st one.
The Present
Daily writing prompt
Do you spend more time thinking about the future or the past? Why?
You would think because I am old, I would spend more time thinking about the past. If I would hazard a guess, I would say I think about both, just about the same. There is no question that as a society we think about the future, to the point that I would call it an obsession. In fact, it is all we seem to think about. So much, for staying in the present moment. As soon as any event is over with in the world of sports there are immediate articles about who will win the next championship or will be the no. 1 draft pick next year. Who or what will, is the beginning of almost every sentence, when you read about anything related to sports. People start campaigning for office now almost 2 years before an election. Polls are taken anywhere from 18 to 24 months before an election. What is even more interesting about all these future thoughts is that we have become a society of instant gratification. If a new player gets off to a hot start over let’s say a 2-week period, then he is a future hall of famer. If another player gets off to a slow start over the same period or God forbid, even longer, then that player is a bust. Even news shows are obsessed with the short-term future because they keep telling you what is going to be shown in the next 10 to 20 minutes. Stay tuned is the number one phrase on the 6 o’ clock news now. A 90-minute newscast, between commercials, weather, and telling you what they are going to be showing you, is lucky to report on about 20 minutes of news. This obsession with the future is easy to understand. The fact of the matter is that most people think the present sucks. The future has to be better because the present can’t be any worse. Personally, I only think of the future when I am planning something. That something maybe simple like the meals for the week, or more complex like a big vacation. I only think of the past when I am looking at what I could do better or reminiscing about some good times. I like staying in and thinking about the present because that is where I am at. However, if you have a moment let me tell you about the next 30 blogs I have planned to write. The next one is titled My Life Sucks At The Present Moment.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 