Kid President’s Letter to the Future

Posted by DJL on Jun 19, 2015 in Good! | 0 comments

It’s been a while – maybe too long! – since I’ve posted anything from Kid President. And Friday seems like a great day to make that up. So here is Kid President’s “Letter to the Future.” As usual, it is incredibly upbeat and orients us to positive action – particularly the simple but profound act of believing in someone…and telling them that! But I’m also intrigued not only by the notion of writing a letter to the future – I probably think too much about the future already! – but also and even more by the idea a) that changing the future doesn’t have to mean huge changes but instead can be accomplished by little positive nudges and b) that while we may not think we have much, we at least have the present, and that’s a lot.

Martin Luther once said – or is reported to have said (I can’t find the quotation anywhere) – that “ideals of the devil.” I don’t think he meant that we shouldn’t strive for ideals like honesty or trustworthiness, but instead that we often hold up ideals – the perfect job, house, spouse, whatever – and use that to judge (too often negatively) that actual reality and present we have. But the present we have, Luther contended, is God’s gift to us. Does it need changing, perhaps, but you can only do that when you value the present as full of possibility.

Which is what I like about Kid President’s letter to the future. It imagines a better future that is rooted in the present and, particularly, the concrete actions of listening to each other (and especially kids!) and believing in each other. Something, I think, we can all do on this Friday…and every day. Have a blessed weekend!

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