This is Now. Wow.

~ Live & Learn

Alan Watts: My goodness, don’t you remember?

My goodness, don’t you remember?
When you went first to school,
You went to kindergarten.
And in kindergarten, the idea was to push along so that you could get into first grade.
And then push along so that you could get into second grade, third grade and so on,
Going up and up.
And then you went to high school and this was a great transition in life.
And now the pressure is being put on,
You must get ahead, you must go up the grades,
And finally be good enough to get to college.
And then when you get to college, you’re still going step by step, step by step,
Up to the great moment in which you’re ready to go out into the world.

And then when you get out into this famous world… Comes…
The struggle for success in profession or business,
And again there seems to be a ladder before you,
Something for which are reaching all the time.
And then…
Suddenly, when are about forty or forty-five years old in the middle life,
You wake up one day and say… Huh? I’ve arrived, and by Joe I feel
Pretty much the same as I’ve always felt.
In fact I’m not so sure that I don’t feel a little bit cheated.
Because you see you were fooled.

You were always living,
For somewhere,
Where you aren’t.
And while as I said it is of tremendous use for us,
to be able look ahead in this way and to plan…
There is no use planning for a future,
Which when you get to it and it becomes a present, you won’t be there.
You’ll be living in some other future which hasn’t yet arrived.
And so in this way one is never able
Actually to inherit and enjoy the fruits of one’s actions.

You can’t live at all,
Unless you can live fully,
Now.

~ Alan Watts

31 thoughts on “This is Now. Wow.”

  5. You know what’s strange, David? My generation (born in the 50s) always thought tomorrow would be better. Easier. Yet most of my friends are struggling harder than we did in our 20s. And my son’s generation (born in the 90s), are so much more into living in the NOW. Lots of them don’t have real jobs, no real insurance, no real 401K or plans for the future.And they’re not really worried about it. It looks like we’ve turned 180 degrees. But I also see that the older I get, all I HAVE is the Now.

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    1. Claudia, my generation in the 60’s is no different. And I’m learning too, that all I have is now. As to upcoming generations, I hope that inject a bit a balance because as this hit retirement, all they will have is their past because their will be in a very tough place.

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    2. Me too Claudia. I am with you on this “better tomorrow” concept. And in some ways it is, and in some very important ways, it is far from better. Of course that’s a subjective analysis of my own experience of life…. 🙂

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  8. As I read this and nodded, reminding myself that perhaps it is good fortune to at least realize this now, rather than look back in shock at all the climbing and find I can no longer moderate my direction and mind. Of course, this is all we have – this moment. Better to treasure it than stand on its head in order to reach the next moment, and so on..

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  18. That is so true David, so true! And we all do it to some extent or another. It is actually very difficult to succeed in living in the now. This is so inspiring I may share that to my poetry and creative writing magazine some time, it would be perfect. Thank you for drawing my attention to it! 🙂

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