I enjoy the history channel; you could call me an addict, actually. They have one show on “Nostradamus 500 Years Later” I particularly like. Since I have a strong opinion on not locking in a prediction on the future, I always enjoy seeing what comes of those who risk it. One of the predictions that they pointed out as unfulfilled was that the dead would come out of their graves. That started me wondering …
Well, what if you let go of the literal interpretation of bodies leaving tombs, mausoleums or caskets. Has anyone else noticed the multiplying television shows where the dead speak to the living? Ghost Whisperer, Medium, Jonathon Edwards, Lisa Williams just to name a few! America’s Psychic Challenge boasted sixteen candidates who had the dead speak to them on cable television for a contest! We have best selling books, movies, and cable shows that focus on the closing gap between life and death.
Doesn’t that qualify as the dead coming out of the grave? No specific description was attached to how they were supposed to do it. It begs the question, was Nostradamus right? I have fun with this since my beliefs are firmly rooted in the fact that the future is a many avenue choice; and at any given moment an individual makes a decision in the present that provides yet another option of where it could lead. So, how can ANYONE predict an absolute future? That is why you won’t see agreement on a high success rate for the people who do these predictions. You might get someone who can shed light on a facet of the future. But by no means will you get an unblemished track record for anyone through history. Or perhaps we just haven’t lived long enough to see the whole thing unfold from these famous oracles.
Now interpreting the past—that is a worthy challenge! No, I am not kidding. Your past changes every day. Because the larger the context you have for viewing past decisions, the better you can see that judgments and understand the choice. So each day that takes you further from the immediate determination, the better your frame of reference for making sense of it and all that surrounded it at the time. You can see other people’s opinions and how circumstances may have colored their perspective. When we focus less on predicting the future and more on understanding our past and the limitations we’ve accepted, the better the odds that we improve our options for today! A better today, well, who knows what that might bring us tomorrow …
Originally published on Truth in Hand
