The future is far more frightening from a distance. Up close—when you’re finally there and caught up in the midst of it and it magically transforms into the present—that big bully off in the distance loses much of his mojo and suddenly appears quite ordinary and vulnerable and ripe for the taking. Opportunities seem to cryptically manifest where once stood only an endless string of doubts and uncertainties. Fear subsides and makes a mad dash for cover, while optimism and excitement wed to unbridled anticipation rush in to fill the vacuum it left behind. Suddenly everything appears much more doable than when viewed through a telescope from ten miles away. This is not because life inexplicably became easier; it hasn’t. It is because life became more lucid and manageable when seen from close up.
Fred's Soapbox 