It is funny about the lot of us.

We place a great deal of weight on the weather.  I think this began when we, a big collective “WE” of the United States, were mostly those good old farmer-types.

Things really depended on the weather then.  Much more so than now.  Sure, nowadays, the commute in to work gets a little crinkly when there is snow in the forecast…. and such.

But back when everyone was driving horse-drawn-carts on dirt roads, and farming, and the like…. well….. a little rain could make things quite impossible.

Yet now.  It is ALWAYS a big dang deal.  And people get paid to make it that way.   We call them Weathermen.   Meteorologists.  And of course… the sponsors.

But never mind all of that.  Here is where WE are funny …. at least we in the Midwest.

When fall & winter are approaching… and we’ve just had a balmy summer… and our buns are still tan…. we get out our coats and hats, and gloves and such…. when the thermometer gets down to 50 degrees.  “Honnnneeeey…..  Time to turn the furnace on… and it is only late October,” we say.

But in the spring.  Yes.  The spring, after months of subzero temperatures, and snow piled high… when those winds outside get to 50 degrees… people put on shorts, and flip  flops, and begin leaving doors wide open.

Same temperature.  Two reactions.

Yeah, I sorta’ think we humans have a tendency to “meet the reality of now”….. with a lot of influence from our past experiences.

Okay.  Forget about the weiather.  Let say you meet Joe.   In the first few sentences, you find out Joe is a lawyer.  And perhaps you had a bad experience with a lawyer.  So part of that past history might influence how you feel about the guy… without really knowing him at all.  Now that’s not really fair.

Yet…. this same exact thing helps us to survive.  The old lesson about putting your hand on a hot burner.  It hurt like the dickens the first time you did it.  So your best guess… it is going to hurt you like the dickens again.

And there I will say it.  This reaction to the present, based on past experience,…. can go either way really.  It  can be a good thing or a bad thing.  It can help guide us… or lead us astray.  But how exactly do you know?

How do you know?

“I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.” – Albert Einstein