For now

When I think about how fortunate I am in life to not have some terrible debilitating disease, to not be mentally retarded, to not be a starving African child, to not be terminally ill, and to otherwise be in the peak of physical and mental health and with unlimited opportunity on the horizon, there’s a caveat.

And that caveat is I am fortunate, ridiculously fortunate - for now. Tomorrow, the proverbial bus may hit me and I may be a quadriplegic. I could find out I have cancer, or some rare recessive late onset fatal disease. Who the fuck knows, I might even start growing a second skeleton.

This is what motivates me to work fast in life, and try to achieve success while I can, because I can now…and perhaps only for now. The future is never secure, and we never know what it’ll bring. Something about not counting chickens before they hatch.

This leads to my life motto, which is “Live like you’re going to live forever or die tomorrow”. Fuck if I know what it really means, but I think the point is to find the right balance between trying to achieve the dreams we yearn for and experiencing all the things we want to feel in life while we still can, while still taking great care of ourselves and constantly keeping the long term in mind and positioning ourselves to be optimally placed in the far future.

All we can be certain of is what we have for now, so let’s make the most of it, because we might not be able to tomorrow.

At the same time, we very well may be able to make the most of it tomorrow and for the rest of eternity, so let’s be outrageous optimists and prepare for the long term, and the very long term.