We always want to know the future. We want guarantees and answers and assurance that we are making the BEST decisions. That we will be safe and healthy and make money on the stock market. That we will find love. That our side will win in sports and politics. And we are very particular about where and from who we access this hidden knowledge.
Publically we ask famous prognosticators, social scientists, and economists for answers, disavowing psychics and astrologers and our own “gut” feelings. And are of course disappointed when even the weather forecast (which is based on science) is wrong. We are shocked when life does not go as planned or predicted.
And that is the secret perhaps, that no amount of scientific analysis, poll research, or psychic scanning will ever completely predict that future, because the future is a verb, not a noun, always in motion. Just like the rest of our lives, the future is shifting and swirling as we shift our choices in a world full of options and challenges, and surprises. The future is immune to predictions.
So we dance between believing the well-published experts and seeking out personal mystics, trusting those whose predictions match our desires, all the while denying the role we play in creating our lives. For even though the world will always surprise us, it is the choices in the wake of challenges that shape our future. It is our present life that is the best predictor of our own future.