Smelling the Future

[Starting & Finishing - IV]

I gave a talk once about intersection between religion and our senses—sight, smell, touch, etc. The part of the talk that received the most engagement went something like this: “Aren’t you curious about the smell of the fresh-baked bread at the Last Supper? I mean, how can we dream of being apart of a thing in which we don’t dare imagine the smells in the room?”

Turns out smell and emotions are stored as a single memory. I was on to something in that talk, and the feedback confirmed it.

It’s early 2021, and we’re all hoping tomorrow (this year and beyond) will be different than yesterday (2020).

Here are a few serious question:

What will tomorrow—the improved, reimagined, healthier part—smell like?

What will you do differently and what are the scents associated with it?

What will you make/build/construct/create and what odor will it give off?

To get started on a different future, perhaps it needs to smell different in our imagination first.