Are You Ready, Mr. Smith? The Time Is Now

The Time Is Now

The time is now,
you can’t pretend.
You know how this
is going to end.

It’s sound advice,

it’s not a rant.

It’s time to act

don’t say you can’t.

You really don’t 

have time to play.

It’s time to act,

don’t turn away.

Your future now

is on the line,

I know you think

you're doing fine.

Don’t be a clown

or celebrity.

Be the person

you were meant to be.

The time is now, 

so turn the page.

The time is now

to act your age.

The time is now

to zero in.

Today’s the day,

so let’s begin.

Stop playing games

it’s time to choose.

Do you want to win

or plan to lose?

Where Will You Be When Tomorrow Is Today?

I've often thought about the tripartite nature of time--past, present and future. I think it interesting that time going backwards is immense. Likewise, the future stretches forward to infinity... or so it seems. Where we live at this moment is in the now. 

How does that work? It's such a small space, yet we've never really lived anywhere else. Where I am now will quickly be past as I keep moving into the next now and the next...

Someone made a comment yesterday that led me to write down the words at the top of this page. "Where will you be when tomorrow is today?" I'm not sure that was the exact wording of what they said, but as I reflected on it those were the words I recorded. I was thinking it might make a good title or theme for a poem, or a song. 

Now here it is, yesterday's tomorrow is here now. I am captured today in this specific space in time. As a result of clocks--a man-made invention--I can even record the exact time of this now. Before clocks, time was measured by nature's actions. I will meet you at sunrise, or sunset. We'll go to the mountain together after the harvest. We'll gather at the Big Lake on the next Full Sturgeon Moon. (ricing season)

Where will you be when tomorrow is today?
If I met you there, what would you say?
It won't be for long but I'll be going away
to the land where the deer and antelope play.

Life is a gift. For most of us it is measured in years. 

There are many thoughtful songs about this matter of time. One of my favorites is "Who Knows Where the Time Goes?"  

And where does it go? 

Another thought here. You can't take it with you. Time is yours to spend as long as you are here. Therefore it is precious, not something to be squandered. 

Meantime... I hope the week ahead will be rewarding for you. 

Infinity

"To infinity, and beyond!" ~Buzz Lightyear

Been thinking about infinity lately. It's easy to see why mathematicians have had such a troubling time with it. Take, for example, this common conundrum.

You have hotel with an infinite number of rooms. An infinite number of people show up one night because of your Vacancy sign. (Maybe it is Grandma's Marathon weekend.) So, you give them all of your infinite number of even numbered rooms, 2,4,6, ad infinitum. They check in all happy and your clerks are impressed because you still have an infinite number of vacancies, in case you get more business.

Well, obviously, infinity throws a wrinkle in things if you treat it like an absolute number.

Here's one I have toyed with lately. Between any two points there are an infinite number of points. If you have a line segment three inches long, and one that is six inches long, why can't you simply say 3 = 6 since both contain the same number of points?

For the Romans, infinity simply meant a very large number. Galileo later suggested that the infinite does not correspond to mathematical rules in the same way as a common integer. Correctamento, Galileo!

When I was young I used to toy with the idea of time being a "duration" like miles of road, and that between two points in time, let's say four o'clock and eight o'clock, there is an infinite amount of time just as in the number of points in a line segment. (I know that waiting can feel that way sometimes, especially when waiting to open Christmas presents or waiting for relief when going through some personal hell.)

And so... if there is an infinity between a few hours, what about a few minutes? Or between two moments? And how long is Now? Is it infinitely small or infinitely something else? Or is Now only an illusion that occurs between the infinite past and infinite future?

This leads naturally into questions about the nature of time itself. Why do some days go fast and others slow when they all have the same number of hours?

What about space? Is outer space infinite? Or does our universe have an "outer wall" or some kind of endpoint? What would the end of the universe look like? How would you know when you got there?

And then, what about inner space? Maybe this is what Blaise Pascal was talking about when he wrote, “There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus”