What is the future? Certainly you can view it under a temporal lens and rightfully assume it to be any time, day, year, decade, century or more, that comes after today. But it is also more than that. It is the past, and everything the future was then; it is the present, and everything the future is now. In short, it is the cause and the consequence of humanity. As such, humanity must accept its responsibility in forming the causes and consequences of the future. To do so requires accepting the responsibility of the past and the present. I have reached the uncertain conclusion that this has always been a challenge for humanity, and that to this day we struggle with understanding the implications of such a responsibility upon our lives. I say uncertain simply because the future itself is uncertain, and that any amount of change is in theory possible, come the future. Perhaps, I suggest to myself, something can be done. And even if something can't be done, to accept such a notion would be to accept defeat, and that is something that I am not yet willing to do.
I, and many other people part of my generation, generations before me, and generations after me, have slowly been forced to accept that our future is being taken away from us. This has come in many forms throughout history--war, disaster (natural and manual), and the like. What I seek is the understanding of what it is today that is taking away my future--our future. Before us lie années sans pardon. We must learn what is in in our past, our present, and ourselves that is the cause of the unforgiving years we face if we wish to find true better days ahead. I have learned that this is something that I cannot expect to learn from the powers that be; it is not the central issue it should be. This is my attempt at understanding what it all means.
