The concept of time is subjective. We have inner clocks that affect us physically. Waking before the alarm or feeling jet leg after a plane ride are two examples. Mentally we feel time rather than intellectually track it. When having fun time flies by. Waiting in a dentist's chair seems like an eternity. Various mechanisms measure time in an exacting fashion but our minds handle it in a way that cannot be quantified.
Our past is filled with emotions. We tend to either romanticize that which was pleasurable or mourn that which was painful. Learning lessons comes from past actions. Some of us forget while others replay certain scenes over and over. Defining what qualifies as the past is a difficult proposition. Every second that passes, by its very nature, becomes the past. Where is the line of demarcation between the past and present?
This brings us to the next period. Here and now means different things to different people. This day, this week or this month may be the present depending upon whom you ask. What is current is known as the present be it one day or one decade. An old adage encourages us to live in the moment. I do not think that this is at all possible. The only way to relive an experience is to allow our minds to see it as the past. Maybe the only purpose of present events is to give us experiences to look back upon. This gives humans a sense of meaning and continuity.
The time that goes by during any experience is short yet these memories take on a life of their own. We can see them again and again in our mind's eye. In this way we can relive any interaction to our heart's desire. How we view these mental movies is tempered by experience and knowledge we have acquired since the date of the original. We tend to frame our past experiences in terms of present attitudes, circumstances and emotional states.
The line between the past and present is blurred. We need to be here today yet we still feel from our yesterday. It is natural to learn from the past and wish to make tomorrow better by the choices we make in the present. This planning, this hoping, causes us to look to the unknown which is the future. Try as we might we cannot know what tomorrow will bring. Our best laid plans are often compromised by the uncertainty of future events. It is impossible to account for all possible permutations and results of our own actions let alone the actions of others.
It is little comfort to me that we can measure time, almost control it, in a mechanical fashion. The reality is that I cannot conceive of time before I existed. The meaning of eternity is just as elusive. The closest that any of us can come to fully grasping the truth of our lives in relation to the cosmos is the calendar. A calendar is the one thing that so clearly represents the past, present and future. I only wish that I could wrap my mind around the concept of time as easily. That is probably about as likely as another person wrapping their mind around this post.
No comments:
Post a Comment