It is easy to romanticize the past. We get caught up in what was instead of being present in the moment. There are a lot of amazing opportunities and moments that pass us by when we take that mental check-out. A lot of things that we do aren’t necessarily the most outrageous things. They are in reality mundane. However they are also amazing things. A philosopher would say it was the cyclical nature of things. It is life. It is what keeps us going; it is the way that we integrate ourselves into others lives and the functions that keep us alive and doing fine.

Life is the most amazing thing that occurs to us. It is how we are here. Our time stream is just a blip on the mass scale of the universe and yet here and now it is the most important thing we can do. Influencing others and being influenced. There is a fluidity about it that is continuous.

An example. We do better because others are doing better. Competitive spirit drives us to go to lengths we may not have thought possible. When we are physically and mentally driving ourselves to pour 100 percent into everything we have going on. On test day when everyone arrives to class there is a bustle and the usual questions. Did you study? What did you study? Do you think you are ready? These questions generally have standard answers. Then you take the test and a week later you get it back. You got a grade you might not have expected, whether higher or lower than you expected but all the same a grade. You ask the person next to you what they got. Maybe they got lower than you. This drives you to continue to do better than them even if you do not know them very well. If you got lower than them then this drives you to do better the next time. Competitive nature, and sometimes it just happens without us knowing it.

The cyclical nature of life continues around us. We keep doing the same things. Yet there is a past that we keep going back to and thinking about. Even when there is a present to be in and to interact with. Because only in the present can we begin to create a past. Maybe even change our cyclical ways. And then maybe we can start influencing and being influenced by new perspectives and new ideas.