Whose bliss is it anyway?

From the day we’re born we or someone responsible for our well-being places a bet on the future. From that point on most of us behave in a way that anticipates how we think things will be in the future as long as we stay with the bet.

We go to school thinking we’ll be better able to care for ourselves in the future with an education rather than without one. Most of us avoid excessive eating and drinking today thinking we’ll be healthier in the future and better able to care for ourselves than if we ate and drank to excess today.

The one-way direction or asymmetry of time is often referred to as the arrow of time. It’s what gives us an impression of time passing, or our progressing through different moments. The arrow of time is the uniform and unique direction associated with the apparent inevitable “flow of events” into the future.

Each of us has our own arrow of time on which we ride from past to future events. However, because, as human beings, we can imagine future events and critically evaluate our well being if those events occur we can also influence our arrow of time and the ride we’re on. By using if-then logic, we can think of events that may get in our way to future events we want to occur and make a plan to overcome the events that might get in the way.