The Present Perfect

 

Every week on Sunday, I sit down and review where I am in my quest for results.  There is a variety of things that I'm pursuing and there is a variety of things for which I am responsible, all of which define my activities, at least the activities that I think need doing.  For whatever reason, I often get sidetracked during  the day.

I just finished that review for this week, and I took a good look at the details.  There were a few minor changes to be made to bring it into alignment with the current situation.  The revisions were slight and don't change my major trajectory, which is performing.  My entire "dream world" is that, and I am certain of it.  I am not, however, certain of success, only certain that I must work to achieve it.  The degree of success that I will achieve is uncertain.  Success is relative and ill-defined, it lives in the opinion of the achiever, but is colored by the opinions of others.

The present is the doorway in which we stand, the doorway to the future.  The past, which has happened, can't be changed.  It can, however, be selectively remembered.  And that is a way we have of protecting us from being daunted by setbacks and failures. 

Then there's the world between the present and the past, the world in which we live, the present perfect tense. It is concerned with what started in the past and continues in the present.  This is where we live, coping with what is going on, attempting to make it work out successfully for us.

That this definition, this concept, this tense, exists means that others have reached this realization.  I think I have had an intellectual understanding the grammar but now I have a conceptual understanding of it and I'm pleased about that.  It allows me to understand life and living more completely.  It also allows me to deal more rationally with what's going on around me.