The Future is Now!
By Barbara (Bobbie) Purvis
I grew up believing that by the time the year 2014 finally arrived, our world would be very different than it actually is. You can blame it on the media of my youth: the cartoons and big budget movies with high tech special effects.
Where is the perfect nutrition in a pill like on The Jetsons? Wait, you mean I can’t get meals prepped and served by a robot like Rosie. And there’s no Holo-Deck or any other kind of “simulated reality facility” for a friendly virtual 3-D tennis match against a player that’s real or computer generated? Seriously, there’s no transporter that converts an object or person into an energy pattern that can be projected to another place in less time than we can blink? All are disappointing truths of the year 2013 and equally so for next year.
We may not be able to teleport to the gym in any way, but thankfully, there are practices like Tai Chi and Qigong that let us improve our health and stay fit without one. What I’ve come to realize through my Tai Chi practice is that the future — whatever I want that reality to be, is being created and depends on the things I am doing today – right now.
Finding the right fitness program helps a lot. Persisting — staying with a program – along with regular daily practice lays the foundation for your future. So as I head towards my future Tai Chi self (and I can’t wait to see how that future turns out) I try to relax and remind myself that I don’t need a pill or a transporter to get there.
– Barbara (Bobbie) Purvis is a retired Air Force Broadcast Journalist