The Past, the Present, and the Future

Why are we wasting our time?

            When our founding fathers put their brilliant ideas on paper, they had one thing in mind: their posterity. Those men were futuristic. They were also very unselfish. They went through all that they did not for themselves, but for us. Throughout the history of this nation, people like Lincoln, Edison, Martin Luther King, and so many others have made this country greater.

            Now, where are we? Our nation is on the brink of disaster. We have a government full of selfish individuals who seek nothing but power and who will do anything to get it. These men are in office because we have an American people who are selfish, immoral, and wicked. The constitution is slowly crumbling to the ground. All that our forefathers suffered for us has almost completely been forgotten.

            Our forefathers weren’t just futuristic. The past was a key part to their brilliance. Men like Jefferson, Madison, Franklin; the founders of this nation, looked at the past to learn from it. If they hadn’t, we would not have the government that we now do, because history repeats itself. Our fathers looked to the past in order to create a better future for their posterity. They read books, studied governments, experimented, wrote, and did everything that they could to learn everything that they could about past nations in order to create a more perfect union for this one.

Yes, our founding fathers cared
about the future, but they took action
in the present

            It’s very important to look to the past, but what I admire most about our founding fathers was the action that they took in the present. They completed the work that they needed to complete in its own due time. They threw off the chains of tyranny which were connected with Great Britain, and they fought a war that would be remembered throughout the centuries; not only a physical war, but a war of ideas and philosophies. They came out of a bloody revolution with a victory that blessed so many people in the eighteenth century. Yes, our founding fathers were futuristic. Yes, the past was an important part of each of their lives. But what matters is the action that they took in the time that they had. Just like J.R.R. Tolkien wrote in his book, The Fellowship of the Ring, “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

            This principle matters now more than ever. The goal of the human race as a whole and as individuals is one thing: happiness. Without happiness, there is no reason for anything that anybody does. Happiness is the reason that people live in the past and in the future. But true happiness can only come from action that we each take in the present. Really, all that matters in terms of time is the present moment. The present is where people change the world. It’s where people do things. And that is why the problem that has been addressed must be fixed.

            Many people look to the past for happiness, but they do not realize that they found happiness in the present, but that the present is now the past. The past is important to remember because we can learn where to find happiness from the present. But happiness cannot be found by looking to the past. The future is very significant as well, but we must prepare for it now, in the present. Many people look to the future for happiness because they believe that better days will come than the ones that they now have. However, happiness really is a choice. You can choose now to be happy, and if you don’t choose now, you will never be happy. Remember the past and prepare for the future. But people, live in the present.