On Time

We are constantly  told that we should live in the moment, carpe diem they say.  Forget about the past, there’s nothing you can  do about  the past and that’s true enough, except of course we can learn from  it and  that is on ongoing process, there are lots of books  written about the past and we’re finding out more and more about the past all the time.  Archaeologists recently dug up a clay pot or something in, well, I don’t recall  exactly, but somewhere in the Americas, showing that the area has had some human, or at least pot making beings, for 136,000 years, which is a bit longer than anybody had thought.  So, I’m glad some people, at least, are obsessed with the past, although I  can  understand that this could manifest itself in less healthy ways.

They say don’t  look to the future, which is a bit harder for me to understand because you actually can do something about the future.  An individual human being probably has as much control  over the future as they do over the present, which  is a fairly great deal over their own personal corner of it, but very little over the future of society and mankind overall.  If nobody thought  about the future it would  be impossible to schedule anything, and there would be no science fiction novels.

Also, no matter how much you try to focus on living in the present, living in  this particular moment right now, is that pretty  soon (in just a moment) another moment comes along, and then another and then another and before you know it you’re in the future.

So, here’s the way  I see it: focus on the present, of course, that’s good, except of course when you’re thinking about the past, or the future.  What the heck, go  ahead and think  about whatever time you want to  think about.  It’s all life.  It’s all  good.