All-Knowing-and-All-Seeing: If you could see the future, does it mean you should?

Sometimes, I wish I knew what was around the corner. Maybe it’s because I was a Girl Guide, an our motto was “Be Prepared.” But what if you knew EXACTLY what was coming? What if, via prophetic dream, convenient-psychic, god-like power, whatever, what if one day you knew exactly what was going to happen in the future?

Maybe it’s your personal future. Maybe it’s the future of the world (ie: impending apocalypse, clowns becoming “cool”, etc). But whatever the case, what if you knew? What would you do? Would you regret the knowing?

Now, as much as I’m a control freak, I also like surprise. It’s why I didn’t want to know the gender of my child before it was born. I make plans, but I’m open to the possibility of changing them (usually). And it’s why as much as sometimes I’d love to know when (or if) I’ll find success, fulfill my dreams, live happily-ever-after, etc, I wouldn’t want to know.

‘Cause here’s the thing: if I am living true to myself, if I found out I’d die tomorrow, it shouldn’t matter. If the world was going to end, yes, it would be nice to have a ready supply of things to help keep my family safe, fend off zombies and the like, but really, wouldn’t it mean that I was no longer living for today?

I am a great proponent of dreaming big, reaching for the stars, and setting the necessary goals. BUT, this also makes it easy to sometimes forget about where I’m standing right now. And sometimes, it’s exactly where I ought to be standing. Breathe in the air of the moment, the texture — and if I knew what the future would bring, that would be lost.

Certainly, there needs to be some balance of living for today AND preparing for tomorrow. If you think about the ant and the grasshopper story, where the ant spends all his time storing food for tomorrow while the grasshopper parties the summer away … to starve come winter, I don’t think you need to be either ant or grasshopper. Instead, learn from them both.

And I don’t think knowing the future is going to be the right answer that would allow me to do that. Besides, as much as sometimes the unexpected really sucks, it’s also part of the flavor and spice of life, isn’t it?

So, what do you think? Would you want to know everything, right now? How would you live with that?

Thanks for reading, and have a great week. 🙂