When a thing is done, it's done. Don't look back. .Look forward to your next objective.
General George Marshall
*****************************
Hello Arlene
*****************************
I've been thinking about the subject of time. Time, one of the nastiest apples ever plucked from the tree of good and evil. I'm not sure if I have time to write about it this evening, It will take some time and even though I have time on my hands, it may be time to do something else. But since it's a timely subject I'll take the time to address it.
I'm beginning to believe as many forward thinking and prophetic philosophers and scientists have said, time doesn't really exist. There is no time. Time hasn't run out. It was never there in the first place.
"Stand still ,you ever-moving spheres of heaven,
That time may cease, and midnight never come."
(Christopher Marlowe)
We are tyrannized by our clocks and calendars. While time is really only a human measurement of how long it takes something to move. we shape our lives around it. And the worst part of it, the most toxic part, is that we put events into a time slot of future, present and past. But I've come to realize that there is no past. The past is gone, so it doesn't exist and therefore it doesn't require my attention nor do the memories that cloud around it.
"Behind me the branches of a wasted and sterile existence are cracking."
(Gustav Mahler)
And so they should be though one could hardly call Mahler's life wasted and sterile. But what is cracking is gone and will do what all past does, fall back into it's essence and create the present, and the present will create the future. The future, like the past, doesn't exist and it never will because all there is is the present and the present doesn't exist in time.
"And the angel...lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware...that there should be time no longer."
(Revelation)
If Mahler's life was wasted and sterile than everyone's life was also. but only if we didn't take advantage of the now. We have always been and always will be in the present moment because there is no other. Now is the only time. "Now is the day of salvation."
(Corinthians II)
Well, I can see from the old clock on the wall that it's almost time to post this. Today is the only day. Do good things today and keep on doing them.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never give up.
*****************************
Showing posts with label time. Show all posts
Showing posts with label time. Show all posts
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Sunday, November 27, 2011
No Yawning
The best way to live is by not knowing what will happen to you by the end of the day.
Daniel Barthelme
*********************
Hello Jen
*********************
Someone recently remarked that my life is not boring. How can a man who lives alone, in an attic apartment, in a small and quiet town, with no family, no pets and hardly any visitors not live a boring life? How can that be, especially since he spent his working life in the entertainment business, as an actor, one of the most interesting, exciting and action filled professions there is and one which is never boring? Why isn't he bored to a perpetual yawn now?
I have known people in my days who were expert at planning out their lives so well that they knew where they would be at any minute during the day. They would keep to strict schedules, were dependably prompt and never deviated from the discipline of their lives. That's a noble way to live, I suppose, but it doesn't allow for much improvisation, adventure or whimsy. And when carried to an extreme it tends to invoke rules for buttoning shirts and tying shoes.
"I always do my laundry at 11 Saturday morning."
"Why not do it Friday night instead?"
"Oh no, Friday night is my time for doing the crossword puzzle."
It gets ridiculous. Some people will tell you that if they didn't carefully plan out the day little would ever get done, and I agree with that. Any serious actor knows time must be set aside for memorizing lines and developing the script. When rehearsal and performance times come the actor must be there and ready to work. But if it weren't for the freedom of expression and imagination, the unexpected moments of creativity, the bright light of inspiration that suddenly flicks on, the actors performance would be boring. The arts when properly done are never boring.
So why aren't I bored? Why isn't my life boring? Although I like a good healthy yawn now and then, I'm not an authority on boredom. My life in theatre taught me curiosity, imagination and, best of all, enthusiasm. It also taught me to respect the unexpected.
When the stranger wanders into your life, when the door you always go through is suddenly locked and when the steady rhythms of your day become syncopated smile, boredom has just fled out the window like an escaping racoon.
If you can embrace with enthusiasm the ever new, ever changing story of your life it can only get better.
Dana B - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
***********************
Daniel Barthelme
*********************
Hello Jen
*********************
Someone recently remarked that my life is not boring. How can a man who lives alone, in an attic apartment, in a small and quiet town, with no family, no pets and hardly any visitors not live a boring life? How can that be, especially since he spent his working life in the entertainment business, as an actor, one of the most interesting, exciting and action filled professions there is and one which is never boring? Why isn't he bored to a perpetual yawn now?
I have known people in my days who were expert at planning out their lives so well that they knew where they would be at any minute during the day. They would keep to strict schedules, were dependably prompt and never deviated from the discipline of their lives. That's a noble way to live, I suppose, but it doesn't allow for much improvisation, adventure or whimsy. And when carried to an extreme it tends to invoke rules for buttoning shirts and tying shoes.
"I always do my laundry at 11 Saturday morning."
"Why not do it Friday night instead?"
"Oh no, Friday night is my time for doing the crossword puzzle."
It gets ridiculous. Some people will tell you that if they didn't carefully plan out the day little would ever get done, and I agree with that. Any serious actor knows time must be set aside for memorizing lines and developing the script. When rehearsal and performance times come the actor must be there and ready to work. But if it weren't for the freedom of expression and imagination, the unexpected moments of creativity, the bright light of inspiration that suddenly flicks on, the actors performance would be boring. The arts when properly done are never boring.
So why aren't I bored? Why isn't my life boring? Although I like a good healthy yawn now and then, I'm not an authority on boredom. My life in theatre taught me curiosity, imagination and, best of all, enthusiasm. It also taught me to respect the unexpected.
When the stranger wanders into your life, when the door you always go through is suddenly locked and when the steady rhythms of your day become syncopated smile, boredom has just fled out the window like an escaping racoon.
If you can embrace with enthusiasm the ever new, ever changing story of your life it can only get better.
Dana B - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
***********************
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Handle The Hissing Fear
Fear is what happens when reality collides with our personal fiction.
Lama Tsonly
*********************
I avoid fear as much as I can. Fear has the strength to alter our lives by focusing the mind on negatives until they become realities. "The thing I greatly feared has come upon me" wrote Job. If we aren't careful we can manufacture the thing we are afraid of. But if that is not the cause of our fear then the fear itself must be challenged and the thing we are afraid of must be taken up and handled until its fangs are removed,
When I retired, like most retirees, I looked forward to a life of ease, a cessation of troubles and having my days spent doing the things I enjoy most. Well let me tell you that turned out to e a personal fiction. I don't want to start every day by rolling up my sleeves and taking on the task of fixing my life, But that is what I find myself doing most of the time.
If I had the eye sight and strength of a 25 year old my normal day of reckoning, rearranging, searching, maintaining, stomping my feet and settling things wouldn't be so daunting.
I do eventually get to do some of the things I enjoy but it seems I have to win the opportunity every day. Who would believe it? There's a price tag on retirement. One of the marauding influences against a calm and peaceful retirement is the opinion from the outside, working world that since I am retired I have all kinds of free time on my hand to loll around and indulge myself in whimsical maneuvers. Ha! Do my clocks run faster than anyone else's? No? Then where does it go, out the window when I'm not looking?
The only answer I can find, and it seems to be a good one, (are you taking notes) is to get ahead of the fictions. My imagination, which never rests, is responsible for some of the most flaming fantasies. I'm going to get right up and start a business. Today!
By the time I visit the bathroom, wash off what the sand man has left on my face and make a cup of coffee, my fictions have been reduced to a more appropriately senior citizen level. It is then that I recall the unseen things, the work left undone, the obligations I have somehow accumulated and the dangers of the world at large, creditors still circling around and snarling, certain parts of the body here and there that are not behaving right and must be look at, and, of course, during my, at last, sleep I forgot all the things I'm supposed to worry about. They comer hissing back.
What is this retirement thing I've heard so much about? Something AARP dreamt up to fool us old geezers? The opponents of Social Security (just wait until there are no chips on their side of the table) complain that old folks are living longer. Of course we are. We can't fold up, because we're out having fisticuffs with the wicked world at large. I collect Social Security and two pensions and I live a simple life. So why don't I have any money left at the end of the month? "Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth where (low interest rates and variable mortgages) doth corrupt and where (banks and credit companies) break through and steal." A word to the wise and the otherwise.
Do I fear? You bet I do. But I put on my sturdy L L Bean boots and go kick fear in the butt, every day.
Dana Bate
The Vagabond
******************
SUMMER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
Who are the 2 (two) most important people alive today? Why?
Only 6 responses so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
Thank you.
DB
********************
Lama Tsonly
*********************
I avoid fear as much as I can. Fear has the strength to alter our lives by focusing the mind on negatives until they become realities. "The thing I greatly feared has come upon me" wrote Job. If we aren't careful we can manufacture the thing we are afraid of. But if that is not the cause of our fear then the fear itself must be challenged and the thing we are afraid of must be taken up and handled until its fangs are removed,
When I retired, like most retirees, I looked forward to a life of ease, a cessation of troubles and having my days spent doing the things I enjoy most. Well let me tell you that turned out to e a personal fiction. I don't want to start every day by rolling up my sleeves and taking on the task of fixing my life, But that is what I find myself doing most of the time.
If I had the eye sight and strength of a 25 year old my normal day of reckoning, rearranging, searching, maintaining, stomping my feet and settling things wouldn't be so daunting.
I do eventually get to do some of the things I enjoy but it seems I have to win the opportunity every day. Who would believe it? There's a price tag on retirement. One of the marauding influences against a calm and peaceful retirement is the opinion from the outside, working world that since I am retired I have all kinds of free time on my hand to loll around and indulge myself in whimsical maneuvers. Ha! Do my clocks run faster than anyone else's? No? Then where does it go, out the window when I'm not looking?
The only answer I can find, and it seems to be a good one, (are you taking notes) is to get ahead of the fictions. My imagination, which never rests, is responsible for some of the most flaming fantasies. I'm going to get right up and start a business. Today!
By the time I visit the bathroom, wash off what the sand man has left on my face and make a cup of coffee, my fictions have been reduced to a more appropriately senior citizen level. It is then that I recall the unseen things, the work left undone, the obligations I have somehow accumulated and the dangers of the world at large, creditors still circling around and snarling, certain parts of the body here and there that are not behaving right and must be look at, and, of course, during my, at last, sleep I forgot all the things I'm supposed to worry about. They comer hissing back.
What is this retirement thing I've heard so much about? Something AARP dreamt up to fool us old geezers? The opponents of Social Security (just wait until there are no chips on their side of the table) complain that old folks are living longer. Of course we are. We can't fold up, because we're out having fisticuffs with the wicked world at large. I collect Social Security and two pensions and I live a simple life. So why don't I have any money left at the end of the month? "Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth where (low interest rates and variable mortgages) doth corrupt and where (banks and credit companies) break through and steal." A word to the wise and the otherwise.
Do I fear? You bet I do. But I put on my sturdy L L Bean boots and go kick fear in the butt, every day.
Dana Bate
The Vagabond
******************
SUMMER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
Who are the 2 (two) most important people alive today? Why?
Only 6 responses so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
Thank you.
DB
********************
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Inch Worm, Inch Worm
Man is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness from which he emerges and the infinity in which he is engulfed.
Blaise Pascal
*******************
"I have measured out my life in coffee spoons"
(T. S. Eliot)
Is there a difference between an insignificant dot and the universe? No. What do nothingness and infinity have in common?
I was just thinking about that Eliot quote a few moments ago as I made myself another coffee. I drink it from a mug . The spoon is in the mug because I put sugar in it. I've been drinking coffee every day since I was a teenager. I can say I have measured out my life in coffee spoons. What do nothingness and infinity have in common?
A baseball team has 9 players on the field and they play 9 innings, and some times a little bit more. A football field is exactly 100 yards and a little bit more because of the end zones. A marathon race is not 26 miles, it's 26 miles, 385 yards. 2 cups of flour, 1 and 1/2 cups of sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon, and, what the hell, a little bit more. I'm not 71 years old. I'm 71 years, 2 months and 24 days old. I could tell you how many hours also, but I was so annoyed at being birthed at the time I forgot to look at the clock.
So what do nothingness and infinity have in common? Neither one can be measured. And because they can't be measured we cannot see them, we can't even be conscious of them other than as concepts, unknown things that have a name attached to them.
Time is such a concept also, but at least we can measure it: Sort of. Seconds, minutes, hours. Every year is exactly 365 days, except it's not. Every now and then there's an extra day.
Alright. time measurement isn't precise. What about space, inches, feet, yards, surely we can count on that, can't we? That all depends. A 6 furlong race is 3/4 of a mile around a race track. But it's only that if you stay next to the rail. If you pull out to pass another hourse your horse will run more than 3/4.
We can't get by without measuring things, or at least approximating them. I put a spoonful of sugar in my coffee. But I don't get a measuring spoon and carefully dole out a precise spoonful. I dip the spoon into the sugar bowl and plop some into the mug. Measuring puts limitations on things, but it can't be helped. Even if we try to imagine the invisible, unknown and infinite, we will still do it in shapes and places. While trying to be precise in our measurement may be a futility for all but the scientist, it is better to live in a life we can measure than to try to live in the nothingness and infinity that can't be measured.
DB
*******************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.
15 responses so far.
Answers will be published the first day of Summer.
Thank you.
dbdacoba@aol.com
DB - The Vagabond
*******************
Blaise Pascal
*******************
"I have measured out my life in coffee spoons"
(T. S. Eliot)
Is there a difference between an insignificant dot and the universe? No. What do nothingness and infinity have in common?
I was just thinking about that Eliot quote a few moments ago as I made myself another coffee. I drink it from a mug . The spoon is in the mug because I put sugar in it. I've been drinking coffee every day since I was a teenager. I can say I have measured out my life in coffee spoons. What do nothingness and infinity have in common?
A baseball team has 9 players on the field and they play 9 innings, and some times a little bit more. A football field is exactly 100 yards and a little bit more because of the end zones. A marathon race is not 26 miles, it's 26 miles, 385 yards. 2 cups of flour, 1 and 1/2 cups of sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon, and, what the hell, a little bit more. I'm not 71 years old. I'm 71 years, 2 months and 24 days old. I could tell you how many hours also, but I was so annoyed at being birthed at the time I forgot to look at the clock.
So what do nothingness and infinity have in common? Neither one can be measured. And because they can't be measured we cannot see them, we can't even be conscious of them other than as concepts, unknown things that have a name attached to them.
Time is such a concept also, but at least we can measure it: Sort of. Seconds, minutes, hours. Every year is exactly 365 days, except it's not. Every now and then there's an extra day.
Alright. time measurement isn't precise. What about space, inches, feet, yards, surely we can count on that, can't we? That all depends. A 6 furlong race is 3/4 of a mile around a race track. But it's only that if you stay next to the rail. If you pull out to pass another hourse your horse will run more than 3/4.
We can't get by without measuring things, or at least approximating them. I put a spoonful of sugar in my coffee. But I don't get a measuring spoon and carefully dole out a precise spoonful. I dip the spoon into the sugar bowl and plop some into the mug. Measuring puts limitations on things, but it can't be helped. Even if we try to imagine the invisible, unknown and infinite, we will still do it in shapes and places. While trying to be precise in our measurement may be a futility for all but the scientist, it is better to live in a life we can measure than to try to live in the nothingness and infinity that can't be measured.
DB
*******************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.
15 responses so far.
Answers will be published the first day of Summer.
Thank you.
dbdacoba@aol.com
DB - The Vagabond
*******************
Monday, April 6, 2009
Basic Birth 4/06/09
All other days have either disappeared into darkness and oblivion or not yet emerged from it. Today is the only day there is.
Frederick Buechner
********************************
Welcome to my world.
-----------------------------------------
Time is a gracious friend and also a fierce enemy. We can measure the past with memories, charts and journals. We can parcel out the future according to our needs and wishes. The thing we can't measure is the present, at least not according to time.
Time is a relative measurement. It usually refers to how long it took for something to happen. It's related to space in how long it takes an object to go from one place to another. It's also a linking mechanism. It can identify an event with another event. Such and such a thing happened at the same time as the other. History books will give us charts with fascinating information that is of relatively no use, except to historians. Alexander the Great was born on the same day that the Temple of Diana at Epheses came down.
Although the future is unpredictable we can still make charts to help us get through it. There's the Mom's mental chart of when the kids are up, dressed and fed in time for the school bus. When dinner starts in order to be ready for the family when they're hungry. Things have to be done by 10 so she can watch the TV special on panda bears.
In broadcasting there is something known as back timing. The announcer kinows how many lines of copy he can read in one minute. If he's playing a song at the end of an hour that leads up to the 3:00 news with a tone on the hour, and if he has a 60 second commercial and a 30 second commercial, as well as a station break, he has to back time that record so that it ends at exactly 2:58:10. Announcing the song will take him to 2:58:20. The 60 second commercial will take him to 2:59:20. The 30 second commercial will take him to 2:59:50. He has 10 seconds to do a station break and say "At the tone the time will be 3 o'clock." Then comes the tone and the news. If he does it right it sounds effortless and automatic. Broadcasters live their lives by the clock.
The only thing about time we can't measure is the now, this instant. It is the only thing we are ever conscious of and yet it instantly becomes the past. Every note the singer sings passes into history as soon as he sings it. Every pitch the pitcher throws disappears into oblivion the moment it is thrown. The reading of this sentence has become already a part of your past. And that is why I think it is so important to be always alert and receptive of thoughts, ideas and opportunities. The now is where we live, where we have always lived and always will live. Every moment of our lives is a birth. It's a reaching up out of the cradle for the arms of a new experience, a higher lesson and a greater awareness of joy.
DB - The Vagabond
______________________
May the cherubs of spring visit you today.
*************************
Frederick Buechner
********************************
Welcome to my world.
-----------------------------------------
Time is a gracious friend and also a fierce enemy. We can measure the past with memories, charts and journals. We can parcel out the future according to our needs and wishes. The thing we can't measure is the present, at least not according to time.
Time is a relative measurement. It usually refers to how long it took for something to happen. It's related to space in how long it takes an object to go from one place to another. It's also a linking mechanism. It can identify an event with another event. Such and such a thing happened at the same time as the other. History books will give us charts with fascinating information that is of relatively no use, except to historians. Alexander the Great was born on the same day that the Temple of Diana at Epheses came down.
Although the future is unpredictable we can still make charts to help us get through it. There's the Mom's mental chart of when the kids are up, dressed and fed in time for the school bus. When dinner starts in order to be ready for the family when they're hungry. Things have to be done by 10 so she can watch the TV special on panda bears.
In broadcasting there is something known as back timing. The announcer kinows how many lines of copy he can read in one minute. If he's playing a song at the end of an hour that leads up to the 3:00 news with a tone on the hour, and if he has a 60 second commercial and a 30 second commercial, as well as a station break, he has to back time that record so that it ends at exactly 2:58:10. Announcing the song will take him to 2:58:20. The 60 second commercial will take him to 2:59:20. The 30 second commercial will take him to 2:59:50. He has 10 seconds to do a station break and say "At the tone the time will be 3 o'clock." Then comes the tone and the news. If he does it right it sounds effortless and automatic. Broadcasters live their lives by the clock.
The only thing about time we can't measure is the now, this instant. It is the only thing we are ever conscious of and yet it instantly becomes the past. Every note the singer sings passes into history as soon as he sings it. Every pitch the pitcher throws disappears into oblivion the moment it is thrown. The reading of this sentence has become already a part of your past. And that is why I think it is so important to be always alert and receptive of thoughts, ideas and opportunities. The now is where we live, where we have always lived and always will live. Every moment of our lives is a birth. It's a reaching up out of the cradle for the arms of a new experience, a higher lesson and a greater awareness of joy.
DB - The Vagabond
______________________
May the cherubs of spring visit you today.
*************************
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)