“In four billion years scientists say the Andromeda and Milky Way galaxies will collide.” That was the snippet of conversation I heard at lunch today.

Talk about worrying about events set in the future. Talk about worrying about events beyond your control.

Certainly the colliding of galaxies will be cataclysmic. The Earth and its solar system will surely be casualties. We’ll all be goners. Of course a couple hundred million generations will have been come and gone before then, including the handful in existence now.

I guess I feel bad for the ones that will be here when the galaxy comes crashing down. That will be pretty traumatic.

But my mind can’t put its hands around $4 billion dollars let alone four billion years. I’m not sure my mind can even put its hands around one year. Maybe a week. I think that’s about what it can handle. And I think I prefer a day.

In my perfect scenario a day is certainly far enough ahead to concern yourself with. And even that is maybe a bit too much.

I know. There are clearly things I need to plan ahead for. But do I really need to be planning ahead that often? Do I really need to be thinking about those things every day? I don’t think so.

It’s as if we as a country have been buffaloed into thinking we need to do all this planning. I blame Wall Street and Corporate America.

You need to be planning your retirement form the day you leave school. And what they mean by that is that you should be investing your money in the stock market. I hate to tell you but putting your money in their stock market isn’t really about you. So instead of living life now you are planning to live life when you are 65. What’s wrong with living your life now? Not in some future that may never come. Boggles my mind.

And then we have this obsessive need to plan everything. Thanks corporate project managers. Thanks for the maniacal need to plan and list out every little detailed activity. How’s that usually work for you? Not too well.  Not sure why we would think that would translate pleasantly to our personal lives. Double boggling.

Why not enjoy right now? This very minute. Let me tell you it’s pretty rewarding. It’s better than worrying about Andromeda crashing into Milky Way. And a lot less stressful.