Friday, May 19, 2006

...the Present Before

There are days when I seriously wonder if my grip on sanity is only slightly tentative. Have you noticed how a single day takes ages and ages to complete while the plural of day, days, races by like a stampede of cats! There seems to be endless days going by way too quickly. Doesn’t make sense to me. Maybe you’ve also noticed that there is no time but the present? There was, of course, a present before the present now, but that was also the present. An older one.

I wonder what the shortest-living creatures on our little planet think about? I suppose some 24-hour-living brand of water fly speaks nostalgically to the fresh evening hatch of water fly about the good old hours; the hours when the sun was in the middle of the sky and it was much warmer. Maybe they recount stories of near death experiences from their youth of flying too close to the water and narrow escapes of the great silver water creatures. I wonder what trout think about? Infinite in life compared to the wee water fly no doubt.

There is a grove of Huron trees on a Tasmanian mountainside thought to be 10,500 years old which somehow places them alive and well with unicorns. Baby Noah didn’t even have great-grandparents yet! That is a lot of birthday candles, cake, and calories (not that a tree that old would want that much fire around it). I wonder what they would speak of? “The winters aren’t what they used to be. I remember proper glaciers and real ice – none of this ‘snow is here and gone before you know it’ ice. You call this winter?! I remember when I was a sapling…” At which point the young trees would look embarrassingly at each others feet and shuffle off.

Have you ever sat on the hood of your Volvo and stared at the stars? What you are seeing now is a piece of the present before; a cosmological event that took place much further back then long winters and unicorns. Close to a star’s supernova is not the safest place in our expando-verse to have lunch, (though lunch at the edge of a blackhole wouldn’t be much more dangerous – just a little more painful), however, lunch in the flickering light of that supernova hundreds of thousands of light years away may get your significant other in the mood. According to Canadian pollsters ISPO-REID, fully 5% of Canadians (roughly 1.5 million Canadians), say that 70’s rock band KISS gets them in the mood. 2% say that dinner and a movie do it for them.

There is something about the present before that makes the present now seems so much more significant. My grip is tightening.

16 comments:

Boomer said...

Sometimes I worry about your grip on sanity too...lol. Problem is I always thought you were the sane one.

That's a great metaphor, if only the fly, in our eyes, could have the understanding of the trout, and the trout the eagle, how much more would life make sense to them. How much more amazing would it be to have the understanding of God, a similar but exponentially larger jump in worlds. This to me is the allure of eternity and heaven...to see into that world.

Jeffrey said...

cool/

jef

ECO ENERGY said...

2+2=?

jeremy postal said...

Geeezzz.... :)
2 apples + 2 oranges = 4 pieces of fruit.

2 apples + 2 sour candies = 4 pieces of food.

2 apples + 2 Mexican blankets = 4 nouns.

Common denominators seems to help.

I'm curious Mark; I'm sure you have some connection here but I just can't see (yet) how this fits with the column?

Anonymous said...

time to head to the hills,

my friend, time to head to the hills.

Jeffrey said...

yah mark... such a freaking pomo.
:)

i have a new one.....


1+ 0 = 0

jef.

ECO ENERGY said...

The formula for the 'Present' has the same inadequacy as 2+2=4

ECO ENERGY said...

The mainstream formula I mean...

Paul & Wanda Moores said...

Where'd you get that stat about KISS? Have you read "What Canadians Think"?? I'm reading it now. fascinating!!

jeremy postal said...

The stat actually comes from "What Canadians Think..." I wrote a short review of it in an earlier post. Loved it!

Mark, forgive me, but I simply am not picking up what you are laying down?????

ECO ENERGY said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ECO ENERGY said...

Jer...
Your communication on the 'present' is brilliant... Think of life from an eternal perspective... Life is eternally present becasue there are no limitations of time and space. The measurements of human systems do not touch it [including math]. Imaging being eternally present... no such thing as past present or future. Thers is no 2+2 because their is not need to quantify anything simply because its all there right now... in the present. Make sense...?

ECO ENERGY said...

Tie this in with your 'familiar stories' post [may 06, 06] and you have an interesting concept. Our stories are being told, written, and heard all at the same time.

jeremy postal said...

Mark!!
You have some explaining to do...I have so many questions about this. This honestly really stretches my mind beyond the beyond >> I need to buy you a coffee.

ECO ENERGY said...

Are you getting a glimmering of my thinking process and theory on the inadequacies of math, time and space?

jeremy postal said...

Well....I need to here the whole theory without interuption. I think I am starting to feel it somewhat......In my spare time I read theoretical science. For real. I'm a geek that way.

Well, I guess I'm a geek in a lot of ways. But that is one of them.