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Reader question: Please explain “live in the now” (“the now”?) in this passage: “My children don’t understand,” she said. “They only live in the now. I have to tell my son that I don’t really have the money to do such and such. ‘But Mama why, that doesn’t make sense, you work every day?’ he says.” My comments: Children sometimes have a problem understanding money issues. My niece, for example, once got really perplexed when her mom told her she had no more money. “Why?” she asked, “Why don’t you get some more from the machine?” Having seen her mom withdraw money from the ATL machine sometimes, she thinks the machine in the bank is where people get their money from. And she probably believes, too, that the machine produces the money whenever you want it and by whatever amount you want it, no questions asked. Yeah, life would be wonderful, wouldn’t it, if it be that simple? Anyways, children think that way because they’re simple. They live in the now, “the now” meaning the present “now”, or the present moment, right now. They don’t understand the sequence of events that leads to one having money put in the bank, the work ma and pa have to do to earn it, and not lots of it either. Anyways, when you live in the now, you have little sense of time, the past or the future. The present moment is all there is. Three-year-old toddlers, for example, can play with water and sand for hours without getting bored. That’s because they are immersed in the moment. They enjoy themselves so much they don’t get tired, either. | 
