Meditations for Mortals: Day 7

The fact that you can't cross bridges before you come to them is liable to seem dispiriting, as if it leaves us with no option but to keep trudging vulnerably into the fog, trying not to think about sinkholes. But it contains a hidden gift. After all, if you're hopelessly trapped in the present, it follows that your responsibility can only ever be to the very next moment... You get to stop fretting about literally everything other than how to spend the next instant in a wise, enjoyable or otherwise meaningful fashion. Finite human being need never worry about anything else.

Is it really true that my "responsibility can only ever be to the very next moment?" Why is the horizon set so short? What about just the next two moments? I don't think I fully grasp the meaning of this entry. It's comfortable to imagine we don't have to worry about the future, but don't we need to worry about tomorrow? If we didn't, who would stop climate change?

Maybe the point is we can only act in the moment and thus by making the greedy and locally good choice, then we'll be better off in the long run? But why should life be solved by a greedy algorithm?

I don't like the phrase "life can be solved." It misses a key element that life has no solution.

I'm not sure about this.