The Man Who Chased Tomorrow

[00:00:00]There once lived a man named Theo.

[00:00:02]Theo was obsessed with tomorrow.

[00:00:05]Tomorrow he would be happy. Tomorrow he would meditate [music] properly.

[00:00:09]Tomorrow he would become enlightened.

[00:00:11]Tomorrow was, in Theo's opinion, a very important thing. Every morning he woke up and immediately checked whether tomorrow had arrived. It never had.

[00:00:22]Instead, he kept finding today sitting on his doorstep. This continued for years. Theo bought books called The Seven Steps to Tomorrow. He attended seminars called Awaken Next Week.

[00:00:34]>> [music] >> Yet tomorrow never appeared. One day Theo became so frustrated that he climbed the highest mountain he could find. At the summit sat an old sage drinking tea from a cracked cup. The sage looked ancient, or perhaps very young. Theo could not tell. "Master," said Theo, "where can I find tomorrow?"

[00:00:53]The sage pointed toward the horizon.

[00:00:55]Theo looked. Nothing. The sage pointed again. Still nothing. The sage then pointed directly at Theo's face. Theo crossed his eyes trying to see what he meant. "Master, I don't understand."

[00:01:09]"Good," said the sage, [music] "you are making progress." Theo groaned. The sage continued, "Tell me, when tomorrow arrives, what will it be called?"

[00:01:20]"Tomorrow." The sage laughed so hard he nearly spilled his tea. "No, it will be called today." Theo blinked. The sage smiled.

[00:01:31]"You have spent your entire life chasing a place that turns into here the moment you reach it." Something inside Theo stopped running. Not forever, just for a moment, but it was enough. He noticed the clouds drifting through the valley, the warmth of the cup the sage handed him, the sound of distant birds, the feeling of his own breath. Everything was astonishingly ordinary and astonishingly alive. For the first time in years, there was nowhere else he needed to be.

[00:02:01]No future version of himself to become.

[00:02:04]And in that moment, something strange happened.

[00:02:07]The mountain did not glow. Angels did not descend. A choir did not sing. The universe did not hand him a certificate reading, "Congratulations, you are enlightened." Instead, a bird flew overhead and pooped directly on his shoulder.

[00:02:24]Theo stared at the stain.

[00:02:26]>> [music] >> The sage stared at the stain. The bird continued on its journey, apparently having fulfilled a sacred mission. Then Theo burst out laughing.

[00:02:35]Not because it was funny, though it was.

[00:02:38]Not because life was absurd, though it certainly was. He laughed because for the first time he wasn't arguing with reality.

[00:02:46]Bird poop, clouds, tea, breath, this moment. All of it belonged.

[00:02:53]And somewhere very far away, tomorrow finally gave up chasing Theo.