Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.
-Albert Camus
The Nobel Prize winner for Literature in 1957 wrote about the fleeting aspect of life and the inevitable mortality of human life. Living, being alive means being torn between these this paradox that we live our lives even if they are fleeting. We can enjoy happiness because we know that un-happiness will come at some point for an undetermined season. Yet some aspects of that paradox are intolerable such as the tension between believing that our life is of great importance while feeling that our life is meaningless.
If all of that is giving you a headache, that’s ok. The point he tries to make – over and over – in his work is that we should live fully now. It’s not all that different than the teachings of Jesus who spoke of knowing the truth and “being set free by it” (John 8:32) ; as well as by “not worrying about tomorrow for tomorrow has enough worries of its own”(Matthew 6:25...) and finally in the uncomfortable destabilizing paradox of the Beatitudes and the promise of happiness/fulfillment/joy/blessings which they assert (Matthew 5:1-12).
We tend to think of generosity in terms of what we give – our money, our time, our attention, our skills, our other limited resources. Camus echoes the invitation of Jesus to give of ourselves – to not be distracted and divided by the cursory needs, anxieties or dreams of both the past and the future – both far and very near. Our future is promised in Christ, yet our tomorrow is unsure: where will we be? what will happen? So give all, not just give it your all, but give all of yourself to the moment in which you are in – the people, the doing, the being, the speaking and the sharing.
Practice that being today – when you feel yourself slipping, or losing attention, being distracted, wishing you were elsewhere, or with someone else; pull yourself back. Be generous with yourself today, be present in the world in which we live.