One To-Day is Worth Two To-Morrows
There are many rewards I life worth planning and working for – education, careers, marriage, a family, and retirement, to name only a few. Nearly everyone plans for the future and that is a good and necessary part of life. But as in most things, moderation is important – an excess can be dangerous.
There are those unfortunately who are willing to sacrifice the present for the future. But if we do not care for today, tomorrow’s hopes may never come, for the realities of the future lie in the accomplishments of the present – in the things we do just for today.
Benjamin Franklin observed that “One to-day is worth two to-morrows,”1 and it has also been said that “We look backwards too much, and we look forward too much. Thus, we miss the passing moment.”2
To borrow the words of Kenneth Holmes, we might say to ourselves, “…I will try to live through this day only and not tackle my whole life problem at once…Just for today, I will try to strengthen my mind…I will learn something useful…Just for today…I will do somebody a good turn,…[and] Just for today, I will be unafraid. Especially I will not be afraid to enjoy what is beautiful, and to believe that as I give to the world, so the world will give to me.”3
According to one ancient writing:
Yesterday is but a Dream,
And Tomorrow is only a Vision:
But Today well-lived makes
Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness,
And Every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope.
Look well therefore to this Day!4
And the comfort in that advice is that we need do it “just for today.”
1Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard
2William Lyon Phelps, Essays on Things
3Kenneth L. Holmes, Just for Today
4The Salutation of the Dawn, Based on the Sanskrit
November 05, 1972
Broadcast Number 2,250