Don’t let the future rob you of the present

{"text":[[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":6.28,"text":"It is probably fair to say that many of us would be hard-pressed to remember a more challenging and complex series of global crises than what we are collectively experiencing right now. Conflicts are numerous and on the rise, the climate crisis deepens, AI presents new risks, protests and riots are flaring up around the world. And every time I catch wind of another headline it’s either suggesting an unbelievable new development or rescinding that last unbelievable new development. It is like a bizarre form of psychological whiplash that leaves one continually disorientated."}],[{"start":42.24,"text":"The other morning, while walking to the doctor, I found myself thinking about how many of us may wish we had a means of predicting the future, whether in our private or public lives, in order to figure out what exactly to do next. Wanting to know what the next day, week, year or decade holds is a timeless human urge. People across cultures and millennia have tried to work it out, whether through divination, statistical analysis or simply endless thinking and speculation. But would it help us to live better, more considered, expansive and compassionate lives if we could tell the future?"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":77.8,"text":"The 1883 painting “Reading the Future” is by Paul Peel, one of the first Canadians to exhibit at the 19th-century Paris Salon. It is a portrait of a young woman dressed in white and seated on a chair. She is smiling with pleasure as she looks at the tea leaves at the bottom of her cup. The practice of tea reading, known as tasseography, has roots in ancient China and became popular in parts of Europe during the 17th century as trade routes carried culture along with goods. There are both spiritual and psychological interpretations of how tea reading might work, but the point is that this simple image hints at an age-old desire to know what the future has in store. Maybe the Victorian woman in the painting is seeking answers about her romantic or domestic life. Maybe it’s a deliciously more subversive and unexpected situation than that. Whatever the case might be, the tea leaves have seemingly convinced her that all will be well."}],[{"start":135.12,"text":"It would be lovely to be assured that things are going to work out the way one hopes but this knowledge would also take some delight and pleasure out of life, wouldn’t it? If we always knew what tomorrow held, there would be no place for wonder, surprise and even hope. There is so much about embracing the joy or rising to the challenges of being human that seems to rely on not being able to tell the future. Things that happen unexpectedly in our lives often invite us to experience new parts of ourselves that we may not have otherwise envisioned or believed in. Whether that is pleasure or courage or new degrees of strength and resourcefulness."}],[{"start":172.709,"text":"Caravaggio’s c1595 painting “The Fortune Teller” is currently held in the Louvre (an almost identical work, which he painted a year before, can be seen at the Capitoline Museums in Rome). It shows a young man standing with an air of expectation while a Romani woman, part of an ethnic group of people common to city life in Caravaggio’s Italy, traces a line on his hand to read his fortune. He is staring at her rather than at what she is doing, and some interpretations of the painting suggest that the woman is actually slipping a ring off his finger."}],[{"start":204.66,"text":"Looking at this work, I was thinking about how tempting it can be to seek other people’s opinions about our own lives. Perhaps there is comfort or reassurance in imagining that the guidance we need exists outside of us. Of course, seeking counsel from others can often be a very wise step. But sometimes, especially when looking for answers about our future, we put our trust in people or institutions that may not know or may not have our best interests at heart. The desire to have our fortune told may come more from our internal impulses. We might have a quiet sense of desperation, a fear of the demands of life or a lack of belief in our own capabilities. We have to make room to imagine what could happen if we placed our attention less on speculation and worry and more on taking action now, no matter how small, towards the kind of future we hope for."}],[{"start":253.3,"text":"If Caravaggio’s painting does indeed show the fortune-teller stealing the man’s ring rather than reading his palm, then I wonder about the symbolism of this. Might those who try to convince us of a future that they have no way of knowing, nor are able to bring about themselves, just be distracting us from what is actually happening here in the present? We may be promised a future while being simultaneously robbed of the things of value we currently have. Why is it that we are sometimes so ready and willing to put our futures into someone else’s hands?"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":283.96,"text":"I have long appreciated the work of the Ukrainian-born artist Polina Barskaya, who draws attention to the ordinary events and activities of her family’s life. In the 2025 painting “Morning at Home House”, she paints an uneventful scene of a man reading a book to a little girl, presumably her husband and their daughter, in a room with a patterned red carpet and flowered green wallpaper. There are bare branches framed in the light of day through the windows. We assume it is still morning. Both man and child are focused on the book being read, which invites us into this intimate activity they are sharing. Maybe it is a routine, one more way of marking their days and their lives. We do not know."}],[{"start":325.16,"text":"But I chose this painting because it stands in powerful opposition to the drama and futility of seeking to forecast our future. I love the idea of considering a future made up of the consistent things we do in the present. Some of those choices will include bigger actions, like voting, or supporting causes we believe in and using our time and resources to build up our communities in different ways. But our future is also shaped by the smaller and seemingly unremarkable things we do that are easily neglected when we get mired in stress and worry about what lies ahead. It is these everyday routines and connections that help to nourish our spirits and hearts. It is these small acts of attention that maintain the steady hum of the engine of our lives, hopefully giving us the strength to face whatever the future holds."}],[{"start":371.8,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1792826207_2691.mp3"}