Previously I discussed the first lesson of The Commons Guide: The Moral Horizon. Today I want to discuss a similar lesson, but one with a different scope.
We live in a world obsessed with the now. Notifications demand our attention. Work deadlines and bills pile up. Advertisements promise instant gratification. But the second lesson of The Commons Guide asks us to lift our eyes from the immediate and remember something larger: our lives stretch across time. To live beyond the moment is to embrace a deeper understanding of ourselves across time.
Past: We are the result of every choice made before us from our families, cultures, and environments, which inform and influence the past decisions and actions we have made.
Present: We act within the conditions given to us, shaping them by our choices and having our choices likewise shaped by them.
Future: We carry the responsibility of our actions to ensure we nurture and develop our future selves.
Capitalism trains us to think short-term: quarterly profits, election cycles, instant returns, dopamine hits from a constant stream of new content. This is the opposite of wisdom. Thriving requires us to step outside the tyranny of the moment and orient our lives toward both the long arc of humanity but also to our future selves.
That does not mean ignoring the present. The present is where joy happens, where work is done, where love is shared. But without memory and foresight, the present becomes an empty cycle of consumption without purpose. To think of ourselves in the fourth dimension, as a stream of actions and consequences informing the future vignettes of our lives, is to invite intention and self-reflection as a core aspect of our lives.
Capitalism likewise trains us to think in binary terms. Do you want a second child or not? Will you regret not applying for this job or not? Do you want to lose weight or eat what you want?
This thinking does not reflect our reality. Will you regret not applying for this job? Sometimes you will, sometimes you won’t. Instead of thinking in binary terms, try to weigh which feeling you might have more often, or which feeling will tend to be stronger. There will be times that you blame your past self, but there will also be times you congratulate your past self for the same decision.
Because we are the sum of our past decisions, actions, and responses to stimuli, we are complex and conflicted beings. Our thoughts and beliefs swing back and forth over time depending on any number of factors. We love hot weather more than cold weather, but today’s heat is too much. We don’t enjoy eating sweets, but this cake is an exception. We normally don’t talk to strangers, but this person just has some inexplicable draw.
We are, to sum, hypocritical, and that is okay. Consistency is a great goal, but it is not a moral necessity. We change and adapt and if our past and future selves wouldn’t recognize each other, that is simply a joy of living life. We must not let others try to define us, to label us, based on our current selves with the assumption that this definition will always be accurate. We must not think in terms of “if I don’t do x, my life will be ruined” or “if I do x, my life will be set” (a source of so much anxiety for our children that leads to so many unnecessary deaths).
To live beyond the moment is to find freedom from the traps of urgency and false choice. We must remember that our lives are part of a much longer story, one in which we are but a small chapter. But we can shape it, tend it, and guide it toward thriving resilience. Likewise we can explore, change, adapt, and enjoy the ride.
-Ben