Just about everything in our world, mostly the stuff that you recognize as "normal", is formatted as "ahead". We are a future oriented folk (fixated, actually), upon what is coming. We spend altogether too much time (in my opinion) wondering about, worrying about, and guessing-at what is next on the plate.
The wave of the future is good, it's progress! Just ask people. The wave of the future is bad, it's things falling apart...folks will tell you. Which is it then? And, the answer here, is clearly; "yes(!)...and amen" might I add? We are seeing two things, then three; then five and onto seventeen. To take then, the patterns of the real, so to harmonize, summarize, and then repackage it all into a "trend", trending either "upward or downward", is kinda what we do; it's who we are.
Most of the talk that I participate in on this type of front is gadget/gizmo oriented. You've done this, let's discuss the next generation of cell phones, the ultra secret new weapons, and those devices of tomorrow, and this more or less formats the discussion. Do you agree so far? There is here, a common-man type of: "Gee-whiz, what will those rascals think of next?", type of tone to the chatter, and we all (I think); can identify here. Our discussions of the future never seem to look back though, and so we rarely notice that yesterday's predictions, those guesses of five and of seventeen years ago, have "arrived"! I mean here, that this guessing we are doing today, and most likely shall do tomorrow, we most certainly did in the past. Yet, whether that "future" (our present) was to have been "up-trending" or not, we almost never notice how accurate (or not) those previous guesses were. It would be like taking the predictions of psychics, and checking after the fact, to deduce their accuracy, so then to better adjust our estimate of the present day's prediction we are just now hearing...why do we just not do this? Normally, we do not "go there"...why?
For several years now, I have been confusing people with talk about us correctly "predicting the past", and in my mind; most people just consider such noises as crazy talk and ignore it. But think of it with me for a moment.
What if you could gather all the relevant "current day's news" from 1955-1963? Heck, add in the stock market reports, the price of sow bellies, and weather reports too. Scour every news report, magazine article, and editorial from the period. Write the "computer program you need" to correctly assess all the dope here, and when you can; using old news, predict 22 Nov. 1963 in Dallas, you have "predicted the past". Wouldn't the most logical wave-front of the future be to begin doing these types of analysis?
We already possess plenty of conspiracy type thought, to the effect that we "should have seen 9-11 coming". So, if in the hunt for news stories in 1957, we cannot find the "necessary link" leading inevitably to JFK getting whacked, what if we looked instead at the known reports of F.B.I. interest in certain individuals of the mid-eastern extraction, prior to Sep., of 2001? Isn't it a zany little bit of reality, to note the "recorded-ness" of things nowadays? Jillions of e-mails, tweets, phone calls, memos, they are all recorded "somewhere", just waiting to be paid attention to, and we never do? If you work for the I.R.S., in which things of this kind vaporize unaccountably, I would "get" the disinterest, but I wonder about us.
We have, in our era, in our lifetime, the single largest cultural records store, known to man...ever? And what do we do with the stinker? Zip. Zero. Nada. Zilch. Why not use the guck, and attempt first to "predict the past"? Next, we could see about (possibly) "predicting the present", from our out the wazoo store of data. Once you get good at those two (past and present), then our weird infatuation with the future could then be reasonably approached. And it's odd; of those I have spoken with about this idea over the past few years, not one; not a single one, of my friends appears to be even mildly interested in this version of the wave of the future. In my mind, it appears to be the "logical sure-thing", the winner in the guessing-derby, but we shall (no doubt) see about that.
Our fascination with the wave of the future, and the never ending guessing at what is wrapped-up inside the packages under the tree; is a pretty good guess (it appears to me) at what shall be. Simply, we will keep doing this predicting..."then". It is "almost as-if" we were awaiting somebody? When will he show?,... said he'd be here by now,... I hope he's alright? If we "personalize" this fixation of ours, and so steer away from a "brute" predictive model of "history", we end up rather naturally, it seems; in His-story.
The crux of these talky-talks is the issue of whether the future is "set", or (rather and instead) whether we indeed possess meaningful choice. Simply then, we affirm as humans that for our lives and decisions to be meaningful, we must have a thing within us called "free-will". Everything in western culture is hitching a ride on this train. The entire schema of thought, action and impulse (all that we propose life to be) hinges upon this door. Right. Here. In our minds then; the fear is that if the future were fixed, if it were a mathematical "set" of known quantity, then, in that case; we would be but "mere robots". Our dignity as men would be flushed down the sewer, and life itself would be but some sort of large-scale puppet show. Since we find this caricature to be personally revolting and so unacceptable (and such a display to be pointless), it therefore (?) "cannot be" true ? There is but one past, and there is but one present, but, for there also to be but one future?...is "scary". I mean here, that your personal discomfort at the the thought is not actually "evidence against" anything...(ever), much much-less so, evidence against all that shall be! Your indigestion does not qualify as "proof" of...anything, except possibly that pizza at mid-night may not be the best idea.
The wave of the future then, is clearly clearly you "getting over" this phobic bias of yours' on this score. As Jesus of Nazareth, King of Jews works in your heart and mind in the future (another "known"!), He is bringing in some odd desperados. Pssst, this is where you enter the equation. We, since the fall, are defending the indefensible, and damned proud of it! But when it proves true, as it surely shall, that there is no good excuse for our treason against, and hatred of said King, when the indefensible becomes apparent even to us, we begin to "turn". He is turning us, and that (friend) is the wave of the future, it's the sure-thing. See? He has it clearly fixed in His mind, as to what He intends to do, and in Him using His free-will, His dignity is established beyond all reckoning, as He achieves it!
Isn't it damned odd, that our sole lifeline of dignity, of meaning, and of reality itself; that mother-lode of will-that-is free; we normally "refuse to grant"...to Him? What about His free-will? What? No dignity for Him then? What about the meaning in His life? How come He's "not allowed" to have any of this great/good stuff, and we get it all? Are we such terrible cheapskates as all that? The wave of the future then, is clearly clearly that we begin to loosen up some, and "allow for" the dignity of His life mission, the meaning of His ambitions for us! This horse is the sure thing, bet there! His meaningful, dignified choice, yep that baby is on the wave front to come.
It's a kind of partner-ship idea, a friendly inclusion of the ugly kid who can't dance. His aim, His desire is to have old "clumsy-foot" right out front, and the crowd going gonzo. It's an invitation "in", and a strong pull "into", it's a joining we discuss, a hand-clasp, an embrace! We imagine it to be an iron and meaningless "puppet show", so then to have the leisure to not-join-in and criticize? We wish then to "sit outside" and "looking in", find fault? We, sitting on our fat butt "find flaws" in those out on the floor? That door is closing, the wave of the future shows it as completely shut. We see then, something a little bit like a very complex reel, or perhaps a round dance? At first, it appears way too complex, how is it; that those in there aren't crashing into each other? The wave of the future is your finding out how, and becoming one of "them". So, the wave of the future includes this whole crank notion of ours about "us versus them", as closing down. All that blather is being repaired in "that then", and we are being freed to join...the "puppet show" which we have so despised and rejected. For no good reason, we hated. For one grand reason, He loved.
So then, as an "undignified puppet" (and as a "meaningless cipher" I might add), I stand up today; doubtless "controlled" by unseen strings, and announce with all the saints before, those at the present, and those to come; "Behold the Lamb, who takes away the sin of the world!". I am saying to you: "Look over there!, Behold that direction will ya Bub?". Further, this "futile" exercise of "mere iron fate", was (apparently) determined from prior to things. He saw this little outburst of mine coming all-along! As "puppet" I shout to you "Look at the Puppeteer!". What else to expect from an "undignified cipher" eh? And except for one tiny thing, this malice aforethought of ours "makes sense". And as simply as I am able, my outburst just now (about finding Him), was what (in fact), manifested in space time. It was at one time the "coming thing", (at the beginning of this C.P.E. for instance), and sho' nuff, it came! This "finding" (being "found" really) of Him, was the "old wave of the future". At one point in time, it was (briefly) the present, and now it is "fixed" history. It moved from the "openly possible", to "closed fixed fact". And honestly, I have no recollection anywhere along the line about being "forced" by "unchangeable fate-destiny" (or any of them other girls for that matter) to write any of it. If I am but a "mere puppet", I have no memory of being one. If the future is "fixed and certain", and I thereby am a "mere puppet", I am an oddly forgetful one, I have no memory of being "forced" at all! But I have forgotten something for certain..."What was it we were afraid of, again? Can you please tell me?". One future is the doorway "in", not the wall keeping "out".
Hostages of "fate" are being freed unto gladness then, it is the wave of the future. Bet on that horse, you cannot lose, for He cannot fail. Old clumsy-foot is coming out on the dance floor, and it's going to be a hoot! Count on it.
He hobbled Himself, ...to become one of us? He freely willed it, so it's gotta be good!
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