Jack’s Winning Words 10/4/07
“All we have is the present moment.” (Marcus Aurelius) Marcus was of the most important of the Roman stoic philosophers. His statement here causes me to wonder about time and about our place in the scheme of things. Do you have the answer? I will use some of the present moment to think about it. ;-) Jack
FROM REV. J.S. IN MICHIGAN: There is no past from which to learn? There is no future for which to prepare. Sounds Stoic to me. Both the Hebrew scriptures and the Socratic thinkers think otherwise.
FROM P.O. IN MICHIGAN: Hmmm --- something to ponder while I'm making a special dinner and cake for my daughter's birthday today! (This move to Brighton to live with her and my granddaughter seems to be the right thing, at least for the present moment.)
FROM C.R. IN MARYLAND: ....that's true, and if it's even tolerable, we should celebrate it.
FROM J.L. IN MICHIGAN: I disagree. On this earth we only have the moment, but in Heaven, we have eternity. And, we also have a future to look forward to. Maybe we won't wake up tomorrow, but we always have that hope. Hope is what we have, not just a moment in time!
FROM MOLINER, C.F.: Marcus had it wrong. We also have the past. That's how we learn.
RESPONSE FROM JACK: My Step-Father always used to say:
“FORGET ABOUT YESTERDAY,
PLAN A LITTLE BIT FOR TOMORROW,
AND LIVE LIKE H--- TODAY.”
FROM P.O. IN MICHIGAN: Love it!
FROM REV. J.S. IN MICHIGAN: I fel sorry for your stepfather. He missed out on the opportunity to learn from our past. I think Geo. W. Bush must live by the same motto as your stepfather.
FROM MOLINER, G.S.: Jack, you'd fit in well in our Bible Study.
MORE FROM G.S.: We have history....................maybe to learn from & guide us?
FROM GOOD DEBT JON IN OHIO: Odd, my friend George Page (deceased), a contemporary of Eddie Rickenbacker (WWI) never failed to say, “Work like hell, and save your money!”
Anytime you saw George that would be his parting comment. He held commercial pilot license number #08. Charles Lindberg or Rickenbacker held license number 1.
FROM MOLINER, C.F.: He was nearly right. I'd change the word "forget" to"don't worry". If we forget yesterday, we make the same mistakes over and over.
FROM M.U. IN MICHIGAN: My philosophy has always been, "there is nothing like the present," "the time is NOW." I have always been fascinated with the concept of time. I fooled around writing a book long ago about two simultaneous lifetimes and I spend a week with my daughter that exists 20 years from now, before the two lifetimes become "unmerged." A big hit movie came out about 10 years later called Frequency. Have you seen it?
MORE FROM GOOD DEBT JON: According to Dr. Abraham Maslow, “The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness.” So you are on the right track. The present moment is all we have; we cannot change yesterday, and are not promised tomorrow.
FROM B.S. NEAR ORLANDO: REPLY: wELL, i MUST THINK ABOUT THAT. I think he was referring to a specific instance, not regarding the future. afterall, one plants a pear tree for their grandchildren consumption. If you want to enjoy fruit, one would plant a cherry tree, interspersed between apple trees.
2 comments:
As human beings, this is true. The a-temporal is a term that represents the incomprehensible concepts of eternity & infinitity. That which is of the World is confined to the finite and the temporal.
Augustine said that all things created will die. Science uses the term entropy to describe this naturally occuring phenomena. In the theological sense, it seems that without temporality there would be no possibility for one's "rebirth", repentence, forgiveness, or other experiences afforded us through God's Grace because we would be stuck in past sins, old ideas, erroneous beliefs, etc..
Depression is essentially a manner of living in the Past, while anxiety is essentially living in a Future that isn't truly happening. Neither occur in the world beyond the body. Meaning, that Time moves on despite our vain attempts to control it.
Every new moment is a new opportunity for one's renewed intention or conscious attention to that which one endeavors to be or to become and that which to give life -- in a Present sense. The Past is always done and the Future never happens. The present is [all that there is].
With all that said, I am reminded in Ecclasiastes (1:18), "For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow". A reasonable conclusion might be that it is better not to know, and the ignorance that accompanies innoscence is the best time of all, and even that will not last forever -- for Time cannot stand still, yet it remains ever present.
Wow. There is a lot of stuff in this present moment to digest. This reader here is enjoying it.
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