“Let the future tell the truth and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine.”
-Nikola Tesla, Electrical and Mechanical Engineer and the inventor of modern day electricity

I was looking out at the Boston skyline, amongst the stone lion maws, and surrounded by the ornate columns and buttresses of MIT’s dome. I thought to myself, “This is all mine.”

The most beautiful aspect of this thought, is that everyone can share it. Everything you see before you… every building, every road, every car, every lamp post, every bridge… from the idea, to the designs, to the physical object itself … they were all created by people who existed before you did. They were all created by people who were experienced than you are. They were all created with the knowledge that the creator would reap the least benefits from his own creation.

He creates for all those that will come after him. These dorms were made for students to live in comfortably, fully. These institute halls were constructed almost a hundred years ago so that you could have the privilege to learn from the brightest minds in the world about some of the most esoteric and magical information that mankind has gathered and organized from the universe.

It is all for you. Anyone can become immortal by leaving their legacy to the next generation. A man who teaches a child is made immortal by that child’s memory. A man who invents a wheel is made immortal by the very existence of the wheel. Everything is made for you because you represent the entirety of our species’s struggle to survive for thousands of years – because you represent the culmination all of the knowledge and application of science, art, and industry – because you are the one whom the world must be passed down to, completely – because everyone trusts you to do the best you can with that responsibility.

Boston Skyline

Boston Skyline

I am constantly surprised by how short-sighted people can be when they get carried away in the pedantic details of life. In actuality, according to Carl Jung, a typical person does not gain the perspective of generativity – thinking beyond one’s current life and generation to the next generation of children – until middle-age, around 30 years old.

I believe this is an injustice to mankind. We have come to learn so much about psychology and the insurmountable potential of the young that we cannot afford to leave them to wander aimlessly and eventually stumble upon foresight. We should attempt to be more active in encouraging the emotional and mental blossoming of thought and action toward long distance goals and objectives. An expansion of thinking on this part tremendously boosts critical thinking skills, and paves a golden pathway to divergent thinking – a critical aspect of innovation.

So the next time you feel a bit rushed by the speed of every day life, you might want to try taking a breather to recognize that the world as it is today is yours for the taking, and you can grab your slice when you see fit. And that effects of true importance and magnitude lay on a timeline far longer and far deeper than the relative moments that you may be stressing about in the presence. Suddenly, you may find that what was worrying you before, doesn’t seem like such a big deal anymore. :)