How will we live tomorrow?

“The same as we do today. 

Chuck Norris, Weekend Flea Marketer for over 20 years, Benton, ME

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How will we live tomorrow? 

A biology teacher’s words in college drove home to me, a very elementary point: “To survive, one must exist.” So the way we will live tomorrow may well depend on how successful we are at existing today. It’s just too easy to concentrate on all the wrongs and injustices in our existence and wonder how we and our children can ever hope to get by tomorrow. This quandary is not new — our fathers and our grandparents before them, likely asked the same question. So I think the answer must lie in our resolve to persevere and do what is right, no matter how challenging the obstacles must be. And often times that’s a lonely place to be. In the end, generations from now, I can only speculate what the answer might be, if in fact it is able to be captured by words. Maybe it’ll be some combination of love, learning from the past, empathy, forgiveness, humility, and constructive intelligence.

Harry Mears, Oceanographer, Seabrook, NH

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How will we live tomorrow?

“Let me ask my three kids. They’ll have ideas.”

Maryse Newton, Painter, York, ME

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How will we live tomorrow?

My vision of the future (at least my future) is probably some version of the Golden Girls that involves guys (at least my guy), a strong sense of community, involvement in activities and causes that I love (ESL tutoring, The Women’s Lunch Place), a dog, lots of walking & periods of living abroad for a few months at a time.  I believe our generation will live more communally and pool resources to address issues of aging and to maintain independence, choice and adventure in our lives. 

Ellen Slater, Wellesley College Class of 1978, Needham, MA

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How will we live tomorrow?

“Well I have lots of plans tomorrow, because it’s Mother’s Day. I’m going out to breakfast with my three year old, and then to my mom’s and then to my husband’s mom.”

Mary Shaw, Shopkeeper, Hope, ME

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How will we live tomorrow?

The ability to connect through the Internet will turn connections into concrete action. We will be able to tell stories of hope that can be harnessed to level the playing field slightly. Our hemp spinners do not even have cell phones or electricity, let alone Internet or the language skills required to use it, but their children will. What the spinners do have is incredible survival skills, for which we owe them deep respect. 

Docey Lewis, 3 Form, Materials with a mission in Nepal, New Harmony, IN

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How will we live tomorrow?

“I like what I’m doing here, but if I have to, I can escape to Northern Maine. It’s sustainable up there; with a few solar panels, you have everything you need.

“I should be out of debt within a year. Getting a divorce, moving twice, starting the business, making some big mistakes right off the bat – they all took their toll. I’m thinking of getting a mobile unit with Wi-Fi. I could work from the road, travel to meet new clients, and expense it all.

“Tomorrow I want to travel more. Get a condo in Florida for the winter, play golf.”

Chris Marston, Graphic Designer & small business owner, Portland, ME

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How will we live tomorrow?

I have been struggling with this question since you posed it more than six weeks ago.    I don’t have positive outlooks for our future.   I see more fighting over territory, beliefs and biases.  Our country is like a very large family.  Not everyone comes out quite right, not everyone heeds to the guidelines and rules; lots of competitive fighting for control and voice.  There will always be the bully, the quiet one, the one with the brains, and the one that just wants us all to get along. Who got more, who has less, who is bigger…….  Why can’t I ……..?

So, outside of the family, how will we live?   Probably more alone than ever before.  Our tech devises will substitute for humans.   We will continue to find comfort in consumption.  Except real food will be unaffordable, or unattainable for some.   Our health and health care will continue to change, grow and develop. New diseases, new fights for cures  – in all aspects, mental and physical.    And the source of life – water – will be sparse.

Agriculture will be science projects.  Fruits and vegetables will change.  Animal farms won’t be recognizable.

There is another side….  We will be a cautious society.  We will work with the frailty of our earth and water.   We will begin to educate in other ways and forms that is not a blueprint for all learners.

As our planet ages, and family of inhabitants – we shall become much wiser and have the tools to not repeat mistakes.  Let’s hope. 

I hope to live tomorrow believing in what we can achieve, if we work for it.  And ridding of extraneous biases.   Also, I want to live by the ocean and grow my own veggies 🙂

Adela Taylor, retired RN, Newark, DE

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