This is true, but don't you think that working for a more positive future means we must pay careful attention to what the future will look like?

I speak as an activist who isn't very interested in my own personal happiness, but who has worked all my life to improve the world for other people. From my perspective, the future is the most important thing there is. It's the thing that I think about the most, and I don't think I'd want to stop focusing on the future.

After all, probably my most formative experiences as a young adult came from my work with Act Up and the HIV social services agency that employed me.

We were always, practically by definition, focusing on others and on making the future better.

We weren't really so interested in learning how to accept the present, we were fighting the present, fighting oppression, public apathy, and the probability of a pretty miserable future for a lot of people.

To me, that's why the future is profoundly more important than the present. It's about making a difference, I guess, or that's what it boils down to for me.