“Ever since he awoke on the space-ship Ransom had been thinking about the amazing adventure of going to another planet, and about his chances of returning from it. What he had not thought about was being on it.”
This sentence that opens chapter eleven of Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis caught my attention, striking a chord within me. For a few moments, my attention turned away from the narrative as I considered my own tendency to be often looking ahead, or dwelling on what lies behind rather than being in the present moment. So frequently in the day to day I find myself thinking about what is next on the agenda, how I’ll check off all the items on my to do list. So great is this mental preoccupation with productivity that it often interrupts the present moment, whether in conversation with another, at the gym, or even in class I find myself thinking of the next thing. I often have to remind myself to refocus on the activity of the present moment. When my mind wearies from productivity of the day, I found myself pondering the past. Upon this reflection I thought of how exhausting it is to be near constantly thinking of what lies before and what lies behind. I do not think this a malady that I alone suffer from, but likely much of mankind and also Lewis’ character, Ransom. Perhaps the remedy for this is just to remind oneself upon the wandering of thoughts to set those preoccupations and worries aside for later and just focus on the moment at hand.
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