What if, what is, what was.
All three has taught us a lot.
One has shown us how to learn a lesson through experience.
The other gives us hope as to what might happen in the future.
And the other, the one that has been taken for granted most of the time, teaches us to live in the "now" because it's the one we have been hoping for. And that we should appreciate the present before it becomes a lesson.
So why is "what is" always taken for granted?
People spend a lot of time being stuck in the past, not yet willing to face the future. And when they do get out of their past prison, they would spend their time wishing for a better tomorrow. They are afraid that the past would haunt them again.
People tend to take "WHAT IS" for granted because they spend more time regretting "WHAT WAS" and wishing for "WHAT IF."