Hack Beat Scrap

At this moment, I can see all my past selves arrayed behind me. They are frozen as if in amber, unable to affect the present moment, but straining to see what will come. They wait, hoping that their sacrifice and strain will not be for naught.

And before me, myriad future selves stream out in front of me. They have their own tasks and projects, but many of them depend on the present moment, the present action. They have been handed plans that take my success for granted, and they hope, but brace themselves a little against a failure that could propagate forward and crush them.

Here I stand, at the fulcrum of history, surrounded by a throng, that cannot help me. I must rely on myself. But today, this day, I will not defect or redelegate. I grasp the task before me and throw myself into it. And as present!me slips into the past and loses the name of action, I go gladly, knowing that I have done [ten pushups] and that my family of temporal and contextual selves stand ready to move us forward.

• Leah Libresco’s self-delegation self-inspirational message