Expectations

I'm not big on expectations.  I'm the type who lives in the present.  But I remember that when I was a little kid in the 1960s, people like me expected that in the twenty-first century we'd be all over outer space. (The present time seemed to be eons into the future back then.)

I've been reading the reprints of the comic strip Peanuts and last week there was this episode where Charlie Brown said that the key to happiness, among other things, is having three things to look forward to.  And I realized I don't have that much to anticipate.  Tonight I'm starting my old choir with a new director and she's giving it a new focus which will mean a lot of new music to learn. I'm looking forward to that, because I remember how much I enjoyed my first year in the choir, when all the music was new to me.

I'm cautious about looking forward to things today, partly because one of my life lessons is that if you look forward to something too much you're asking for disappointment.  Sometimes something will justify your hopes, but even then in hindsight it won't seem very important.  It's the defeats and disappointments that we really seem to remember.