Living in the Future's Past (2018)

Jeff Bridges: Self - Narrator

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  Self - Jeff Bridges : Astronaut Neil Armstrong pursued the next step in the evolution of knowledge. When he returned from one of mankind's greatest engineering achievements, he stated, "I felt the success of the lunar landing might inspire men around the world to believe that impossible goals are possible, that there really is hope for the future of mankind." We are living in the future's past, and the relative odds of future outcomes change every second. The world we all live in is not larger than the sum of its parts. Each part is neither the center or the edge. It's a bustling world, a household of bees, colleagues, of human and non-human, animate and inanimate, over which we have influence, but in turn influence us. Physical realities exist regardless of our desires. Seemingly insignificant actions taken collectively have led us to this moment. Everything is a system of relationships, and it's not easy to see the connections - the connections between the paint on a barn, the indifferent asphalt, a press conference, or to see the invisible links between human expectations, human vulnerability, human memory, and the fragility of life itself. No, it requires effort. Energy comes in many forms. It's the means and the ends of all our pursuits, all of us held in the arms of the atmosphere. We don't have to be poets, scientists, superheroes, or saints. Each of us can think about how we think. Can the solution we are looking for be inside us? We are humankind. Ingenuity is in our DNA, and we can visualize. What kind of future would you like to see? What are you willing to contribute in creating it? Ask yourself, "What am I willing to do?" and not something that requires more effort than you're willing to make, and not some small contribution that just scratches the guiltage but doesn't get the job done. No. Ask yourself, "What am I willing to contribute that comes natural to me. Something that I can sustain until the challenge has been met. Something that fits into my life - my profession, my hobbies. Fits in with my relationships. Something that's a part of who I am." Yeah, you know each of us is unique, each of us has a gift, a strength that we can direct toward creating this world that we'd like to see in our future, that we'd like to see in our kids and descendants' future. We love our kids, right? A quote from the religious philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin comes to mind: "After mastering the winds, the waves, the tides, and gravity, we shall harness for God the energy of love. And then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire."