A few of my recent posts have been a little time-oriented.
I came across a quote a while ago in a book, and now I can’t find who it was that made it, or exactly what it was, verbatim. But it was something along the lines of how we cannot appreciate the present because we are too caught up thinking about the past, and planning for the future.
Or was it re-living the past and fearing the future?
If only we could learn to live in the eternal now, letting nothing pass us by. Opening our senses to the full, letting life flood us as it is happening. If we could but appreciate and experience all the good things that are occurring, and attempt to deal with the bad, so that they can be dealt with and filed away. Not hinder us, tearing us this way and that. Splitting us asunder from the present.
I know I speak like a naive idealist. But it would be good.
Of course another meaning for the word present is gift. I like that. An ongoing moment of opportunity that is given to us with grace.
All of us live in context, shaped by the time and place and circumstances that we find ourselves in. No matter where we may travel to, whatever strange and exotic shores we may find ourselves on, we take this shaping with us. All played out on our inner landscape. We are all made up of past experiences and current stimuli. I think what we need is a certain amount of acceptance.
Every view we hold, every opinion we develop, all have their point of origin. Our self-source, if you like. Even the genius is not an anachronism-that blinding flash of insight still has a source. A fertile ground from which it suddenly sprouted.
But what about the future, that distant, unknown destroyer of dreams? If you could somehow pierce its sanity-saving cloak, would you want to? Or would knowing of future events absolve us of both action and responsibility? Those of you who are Doctor Who fans will know that the Doctor often speaks of fixed points in time. Would those fixed points be malleable, be subject to change? I’ve no idea! But I do know that the Doctor always has his hands full trying to save an imperilled universe, and is usually up to his eyes in paradoxes.
There are many scientists and physicists that talk about such things in a way that is beyond me, that makes my confounded eyes glaze over. You could always seek out their books if you are actually that intrigued.
This here is just a rambling set of questions provoked by my quest to locate a quote that I’ve temporarily lost. Everything is temporary!
And I think the main question is: if you could see into the future to discover what life holds in store for you, would you want to do it? With all the ramifications involved?
Well, would you?
Oh Norma Jean, if you only knew.
City Jackdaw 