The future is uncertain, that’s a given. How wonderful it would be, we think, if there was a crystal ball into which we could gaze just so we could have a glimpse of the future.

The truth is, there is no future to be sighted within the crystal ball, for the future is a non-existent entity. The future becomes existent only when it becomes the present. When the story of life unfolds in all its glory, turning each possibility into a realised present, then the future becomes existent, rendering it a present.

Sometimes, in our need for certainty, we make the future existent, even determined. The case for determined futures often even turns to religious language for support. However, this manner of determinism (not determination) ignores the crucial place of human responsibility in the unfolding of the future into the present.

Choice is what humankind has been given. Sometimes it is a gift, at other times it is a curse. When the future unfolds as the present, it is often a result of choices we and others have made. Surely, there are exceptional instances, but seldom so. And then, when the future has unfolded as the present, how we choose to respond is again another call for the exercise of the human prerogative to choose.

As of now, there is no future to be known. It doesn’t exist. The future is a concept, not a reality. Now, how one responds to such uncertainty, that’s a choice. Make no mistake about it: how we choose to respond to the present uncertainty will affect the future, and we will know it when the future becomes the present.