- Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards
- Soren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher (1813 – 1855)
‘The rule is, jam tomorrow and jam yesterday–but never jam to-day.’
‘It MUST come sometimes to “jam to-day,”‘ Alice objected.
‘No, it can’t,’ said the Queen. ‘It’s jam every OTHER day: to-day isn’t any OTHER day, you know.’
‘I don’t understand you,’ said Alice. ‘It’s dreadfully confusing!’
‘That’s the effect of living backwards,’ the Queen said kindly: ‘it always makes one a little giddy at first–‘
‘Living backwards!’ Alice repeated in great astonishment. ‘I never heard of such a thing!’
‘–but there’s one great advantage in it, that one’s memory works both ways.’
‘I’m sure MINE only works one way,’ Alice remarked. ‘I can’t remember things before they happen.’
‘It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards,’ the Queen remarked.
Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
If only we could remember the future and the past then we’d have it all figured out. It might be a little confusing though. The way my backwards memory works, I don’t trust it very much. My future memory would probably have just as many glitches. On second thought, maybe this whole remembering the future is overrated. I’ll be having false memories base on my current mood. That could really mess with my upcoming life. If only we could get a good fix on where we’re headed and how we are going to survive the ecological and economic meltdowns to come by avoiding them. Maybe we could start a few years ago and work from there. I might need to start before I was born in order to catch up.