Future Tense Driving

The other evening I was driving home from work switching radio stations between KNX 1070 AM and KPCC 89.3 FM.  It was hard to decide which station because both each in its own way were ranting about the zero jobs growth and the ever sagging housing market and the decision of the White House to screw the climate in favor of possible corporate jobs growth and this and that and the other.  The more I listened the more stressed I felt because even though I am employed, own a home and do my part to help save the planet from our own destructive march this was awful stuff filling me and the old red Jeep.  I couldn't stop thinking about what would happen if this and then what would happen if that until suddenly I had to brake hard to avoid hitting the car in front of me.  All six lanes of traffic on the 210 West had come to a stop.  While I did avoid slamming into the vehicle in front of me, I realized that up until that horrifying moment when I realized I had been paying very little attention to what was going on in the here and now in front of me I had been driving in the future tense.  I was listening to more portents of doom and worrying about this and worrying about that to the extent that I wasn't paying much attention at all to what was going on right in front of me.
So I got to thinking about how much time I spend living in the future and how little I spend living in the right here and now this very moment.  My goal, therefore, is to change my address from future dweller to present dweller.  That's where the traffic stops, where I have to pay attention, and where life really is.