Good morning! I’ve been doing a lot of reading. I’m in the middle of David McCullough’s Mornings on Horseback, about Teddy Roosevelt. As wonderful as that is, I still have time for the Internet. First I was reading 17 amazing hair tricks you have to try right now, then 22 of the best Disney quotes of all time and next thing I knew I was taking an online quiz to figure out who my boyfriend was in a past life.
Then I took a break and read my mom’s Reader’s Digest. It has an interesting article on the brain and why it works the way it does. The article reminds me of the time in 2008 when I didn’t pay my state taxes. Massachusetts found me in 2013 and said, I’ll paraphrase,
‘Hey Jessica! You’re in trouble. You still owe us $500, plus a big late fee and interest.’
My mom says,
“I guess you thought Future Jessica wouldn’t mind paying this.”
According to Reader’s Digest,
“When you put off something pressing, you avoid negative emotions caused by an unpleasant task because you want to feel good now. But all you’re really doing is giving the problem to your future self. So the question becomes, why do we treat Future Self like that? An MRI study shows that we think of Future Self the same way we think of a stranger.”
Who’s Future Jessica? I don’t know her. I need to go take a quiz and see who her boyfriend will be.
Good Times with Jess 
Hmmm, that reminds me of a “know” phenomenon in watching teleBision shows. You know that certain characters know certain things about other characters and what they think the other characters don't know and the things that other characters are dead wrong about. Like M knowing that W was almost killed by assassins but M saved him even though W didn't know M yet and W didn't realize this took place. But in the end W kills M because he won't give him a piece of information then suddenly realizing he could have got the information from L.
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We have a way of thinking our future self will be dead before the state of Massachusetts finds us, or by then we wiLL be connected to Connecticut.
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It's true. I was leaving the country and thought: I'm not going to be in Massachusetts, I don't need to pay this. Although I already had a return flight to Boston.
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