What Will It Matter a Hundred Years From Now!

Sometimes we hear someone shrug off a puzzling or disappointing situation with the comment, “What will it matter a hundred years from now?” This may be just a causal way of by-passing facts that we don’t want to face, but it’s a good question if we will ask it seriously: “What will it matter a hundred years from now⎯or fifty, or ten, or tomorrow?” In many ways our lives would be very different if we would ask this question before we do some of the things we do, before we say some of the things we say, and before we pursue some of the objectives we pursue. We are disposed to devote much time and energy to things that won’t matter much next year, or even tomorrow, to say nothing of a hundred years from now. We are often given to driving ourselves toward goals that aren’t worth arriving at when we get there. We are given to eating our hearts out for things our neighbors have, or that we think they have, which we pay a high price to acquire, and which, with the passing of many days, often count for little. Perhaps it is a good time to ask the question: “Where shall we be a hundred years from now?” Specifically, no man knows; but inasmuch as men are immortal, we shall still be ourselves, and we shall still think our own thoughts. And it isn’t likely that it will be any easier to run away from ourselves than it is now. But the passing of time will put its own appraisal on the record of the past. And the trivial things for which we have given much, the small talk in which we overindulge, and some of the things some have sold themselves for, will all be known, for their worthlessness. Some things we thought were important, we shall know were exceedingly unimportant, and some of the things to which we didn’t give much attention, we shall come to learn mattered much⎯and our neglect will accuse us. But many of the things which clutter our lives and confuse our thoughts now, won’t forever stand in our way so long as we keep faith and honestly do the best we can. If we can learn to live a day at a time and keep moving in the right direction, the future will find that time will have sifted out much and the chaff and disposed of many problems, healed many wounds, quieted many sorrows, and dissolved many of our little fears; and time will have written the real values on many things on which we have now fixed false price tags.