TOMORROW IS NOT JUST ANOTHER DAY

Inspired by two recent readings, my mother's nagging and a Belgian film.

“Tomorrow is another day.” I hear this phrase a lot; maybe more so these days of terror and violence and displaced peoples and economic turmoil and confusion within relationships.

The premise behind it is hope. It is always hope. We say these words to someone going through a rough patch, experiencing a sad moment, gripped by despair, imprisoned by solitude or depression. Any amount of reasons needing reprieve from the moment.

We say them to ourselves as well. For all of the above and even for the simpler ones: an opportunity missed, a forgotten call to someone, a stupid thing we did the day before, our neglect of a tedious job.

I wrote a couple of reviews, one after the other I think from memory and both writers were speaking about tomorrow. This premise of hope; a fresh beginning, an end to some dis-ease…

It struck me as I was writing the second review; something about our focus always been ahead. The promises contained within each new tomorrow, the possibilities abounding, the prospects lurking, looming just beyond the next sunrise.

I recall too, quoting in my review that other much-used phrase, “today is yesterday’s tomorrow”. Something like that.

I moved on to reading the most incredible first chapter by a new writer to the site. It was so fine I lost myself within it, believing I was turning the pages of a best-seller - and I don’t mean pulp-fiction.

Still, the ‘tomorrow is another day’ or as we Aussies say, “she’ll be right, mate,” lingered. I found myself asking why it was always presented with hope. Only hope. Why was it offered up as consolation for the current day’s mishaps or tragedies or tediousness?

Why do we never consider each tomorrow as a step closer to death? Every tomorrow as yet another day nearer; holding within it endless possibilities for not only our eventual, but also our unexpected, early demise. The getting hit by a bus thing…

My mother always nagged me, as I tended towards procrastination especially when it came to humdrum things, or unpleasant, tiresome things needing attention. Translated, this nagging said: “If something can be done today, don’t leave it for tomorrow.”

Oh how I grew to detest this phrase over the years! “Yeah, yeah,” was my usual response, meaning, “Leave me alone I’m busy with something more important right now.”

As a procrastinator still, I am in turmoil. The “Yeah, yeah,” suddenly has another side, an unpleasant side. If I am filling up every tomorrow with each todays’ tediousness and this goes on and on… day after day… see where I’m heading? The assumption that there is always a tomorrow, always another one, offering hope, offering reprieve and yes, perhaps offering up the state of mind receptive to tackling the boring stuff amassing, put off and put off…

But this every tomorrow full of these posibilities suddenly presented as also another step closer to my death - or any amount of incidents leading to an earlier than anticipated demise. Tomorrow is not good then? A moment when I sat back and removed the hope - looking at a tomorrow without this hope attached - It scared me.

Am I leading now into how we should rejoice in the present and live in the present and not put off things due in the present? I don’t think so. Only because this is unsustainable. Dreams would not exist in the present. Wishes would not exist in the present. Relationships would not exist in the present. Hope too… All these and many others project and also regress, back and forth on our timeline.

Maybe a more balanced view of tomorrow is needed. Hope sure, but accompanying it, a little fear. A “what if…” added to the mix of expectation, anticipation and procrastination.

We can count our life-days with a fair amount of certainty - hell we can go online and use a plethora of tools which when we factor in our health, our diet, our lifestyle and our present age they spit out in turn how much time we have left; based on the averages of our responses compared with past results and projected outcomes. 

I did that once. Felt rather good because as a vegan, I had a life-expectancy of 98. Of course I didn’t factor in the getting rear-ended by two cars a couple of years later, resulting in excruciating nerve pain most days since. Can I live to 98 carrying this pain and depending on increasingly ineffective ‘pain management’? It seemed an awfully long time to be wasted lying on my side in tears.

I also watched a new Belgian film a few days ago. It was sub-titled. The story revolved around ‘God’ living here on earth and being an evil trickster. His young daughter decided to do something to stop this evil and texted everyone in the world the precise amount of time they had left to live. Scattered scenes showed different times on people’s phones, some only having a second or two of life left, some an hour, some a few years.

People panicked as was expected, and a few tried to change their fate by doing something other than the usual, at the exact predicted moment of their death. It didn’t work; they avoided the initial intended ‘something’ but another unrelated thing caused their demise anyway.

What would life be, if we each knew the exact moment of our death and could watch the seconds, minutes and hours counting down? Would this result in a frantic mess of doing, doing, doing, trying to cram in everything we could in the time we had left?

Would anarchy prevail, everyone seeking to fulfil every dream and agenda and bucket-list item; caring little about anyone else? This temporary, varied-in-length immortality, allowing each to do what they’d never dared, to take the risks they'd always feared, to say the words they'd always held back… for another day - because there was always another tomorrow before this event?

It has made me pause, sure. The writing, coinciding with the film, my own procrastination, my mother’s nagging; all interwoven to produce a shifting in thinking, an introduction or perhaps acknowledgement that each tomorrow offers hope certainly, but also takes another day away. Another day away…

Reviews

[Hyacinth]

.....what do i say? I've thought about this a lot because that phrase has been said to me a lot and- honestly- i thought the same as you. I still do. This world, it has no room for mistakes because 'tomorrow ISN'T just another day' yet we still make them. You've left me thinking, dear friend.
Thank you for another lovely piece.

[Elise Anton]

You are welcome as always. It knocked me, it did, because I confronted the one thing we all fear: The end of us. This from a purely physical sense, since I have no idea what happens after our hearts stop beating. Maybe there's something beyond, maybe there's not. It's not for me to preach either way.

You're spot on. We make mistakes and keep on making them because we trust in this hope-filled tomorrow. We can be bad-a*s one day and repent the next right? Yet how many times do we hear of one partner losing the other and having to live with that morning's argument, or the neglect of saying "I love you"...

Hope I didn't cause too many dark thoughts. I felt I needed to remind myself that things other than hope lurk in every new day, and that we should take a moment to reflect on them...

[Hyacinth]

Not too many, no. Just brought some that were hiding away to the front of my mind.

When I was a little younger, I used to fear the end so much that it caused me nightmares. I've come to accept it though, because no matter how hard we try, we can't delay the inevitable.

[Elise Anton]

That's for sure. Maybe it's better that our brains or whatever are wired so that we see the hope. I don't know. I wish I knew where the balance was...

[Philip Muls]

Very interesting thoughts about our experience of time or the illusion of it. I tend to agree with you that hopes and dreams cannot exist in the present. And yet, all the great philosophists seem to converge on the importance of living in the now to be happy.

Good stuff!
I am from Belgium by the way, pleased to meet you.

[Elise Anton]

Pleased to meet you too. I'm on that rather big island in the middle of nowhere and once thought to be the end of the world. Thanks for stopping by and reading. Yeah, the whole living in the now movement... Sounds wonderful but can one sustain it indefinitely? They never quite tell you that part. HOW is it possible to live in every single moment? Anyone you know tried it?

[Stefano Segnan]

Often do I hear such discussions and read similar thoughts. The whole notion of tomorrow as uttered by most humans reeks of fear of death and utmost laziness but I sense no hope. When you base your hope upon tomorrow, you just want to elude the responsibility of acting now or for living now. "Why are you not acting now?" is the question, "what are you fearing? mistakes?". Tomorrow, hope and death are notions that are used to deceive our perception of self-responsibility or to postpone and ease the negative consequence of our actions.

Methinks that tomorrow doesn't take anything from you, for the simple fact that you cannot live in the tomorrow except in an illusion. If each day brings me closer to death, what's the problem? I met death once, and as I looked into death's eyes, I simply saw a gentle fact of nature. If you are satisfied with yourself, you will greet death as a dear friend. If you are not satisfied with yourself, you will shun and fear it as the most despicable enemy.

[Elise Anton]

Stefano, what can I say? Spot on as always. You have this knack of picking at my writing and finding the core. I presented both sides but you honed in on the middle. I too faced death once and although I did not see it as a 'gentle fact of nature', I felt no fear. What does that say? In the face of it - no fear. Contemplating its proximity... yeah, some fear. Mostly the moments I will miss with my boys truth be told.

[Stefano Segnan]

Sure you will! We're humans after all. I wouldn't be pleased if I discovered you're a bot

[Elise Anton]

Might surprise you yet. I hear the Singularity is upon us... maybe I'm an early model lol

[Stefano Segnan]

The Agency discovered me! Sob, sniff, sigh

[Elise Anton]

You're not alone. They'll get everyone sooner or later... Can't wait to meet the new and enhanced Stefano. Or maybe not... You don't need enhancement come to think of it. You scare me as you are lol. (mind-wise) Otherwise, wouldn't change you for the world!

[Stefano Segnan]

New enhanced Stefano? I would be bothersome to myself, I already tend to be annoying to myself, lol

[barleygirl]

In this well-penned persuasive essay, you are not exactly picking a stance & sticking to it. Instead, it meanders thru a variety of side-trips, each adding another layer of related possibilities to your pondering. Think about this . . . think about that . . . and many readers will do just that. I believe humans prefer this type of persuasion, not the cram-it-down-your-throat variety. Especially about this topic, becuz we all have different perspectives & for some of us, our perspective changes daily or even hourly. Quite frankly, a lot of this read in a more cerebral way, until you came to the part where you revealed your own pain situation . . . that's when the writing suddenly got powerful as hell. A lot of people wouldn't want a long diatribe that's powerful in this way, so you're correct in easing into it & then easing out of it pretty quickly. Nice thought-provoking read done in a fresh, creative way.

[Elise Anton]

I tend to meander a lot, even when I have the structure - I lie. I NEVER have structure, I can't plan anything whict is detrimental at times. I write the heading - say a thought pops in my head and then I just start, having NO idea where I'll be taken. It may look planned and/or intentional but honestly, I only see some sort of flow in the re-reading. It's like my mind unconsciously brings order to the chaos, if that makes sense?

Thanks for stopping by barleygirl, your comments are appreciated as always. Seat of the pants writing somewhat exposes you ;)

[barleygirl]

I am of the opinion that we need to keep writing new stuff to grow our writing. You can never manicure any one piece & accomplish the inner growth of good writing. It's only by doing, doing, doing. You may feel meandering & haphazard now, but eventually, each piece will take on more structure just becuz you're growing as a writer, not becuz you're tying to impose structure on any given piece.

[Elise Anton]

I hear you. I'm trying to put all these 'thought' bits under one title as they're all over the place at the moment. I have this thing - a separate file - where I type out random headings, some thoughts, some bits I hear, some things I read. All my prose on here - apart from the memoir - is the result of going through these headings, picking one and going with it. Maybe mental exercise, maybe challenge? But always, always never knowing the journey in advance.