Three Speeds

I recently had a revelatory moment of insight into myself. When it comes to time, I only have three speeds. There's the past, that's easy, you can't really change it, either you remember it or don't and either way it's forgivable. There's the present...that's where I am at...the here and now. Sometimes the shadow of the past nudges onto me and I get sad or happy. It's when the future interferes that things go wrong...The future is my problem area...and it's easiest to explain by example. On a Tuesday someone calls me to suggest we get together on Saturday, "Great" I say, wonderful idea! On Thursday, someone else calls to ask me if I can help them with something on Saturday, "Of course" I say, be glad to...and on Friday night one of my daughters reminds me that on Saturday I promised them we would....(fill in the blank), "Ah, yes, I remember", and I am looking forward to it! You see, to me Saturday is not "Saturday, October 10th", it's "The Future" also known as "Not Now". So what happens when "Saturday" collides with "The Present"? Not a pretty sight as you can well imagine. There's a lot of hand wringing and phone calls, and me thinking "These people are asking me the impossible, I can't be at 3 places at once."...Then my husband, children and rational concience remind me, "No, you agreed to the impossible."

All that because I only have three speeds, then, now and later...and I prefer to stay in the now (unless I'm in the dentist's chair, but that's another story).