LS Re: - How soon is now?


Hettinger (hettingr@iglou.com)
Tue, 6 Jan 1998 18:21:21 +0100


Welcome, Richard!

You wrote:

> I've been thinking about time a lot lately. The idea of "now" particularly
> interests me. On the one hand, there can only be now. The past doesn't exist
> anymore, and the future doesn't exist yet. That is to say, the past never
> exists, and nor does the future. Only now ever exists.
>
> But on the other hand, no thing can ever be now. If now always is, then it
> is beyond time. It is timeless. There can never be any individual moments
> which are now. Because by the time you have isolated them, put your finger
> on them, they are no longer now.
>
> So, on the cutting edge of life, on the n of now, all things must be one,
> all one solid, timeless, spaceless, Being; Parmenides's One. In other words,
> utterly changeless, the very opposite of the spontaneous, dynamic Quality
> Pirsig sees as being the living essence of a thing.
>
> The answer? No thing ever has an existence on THE cutting edge of Life, on
> the N of Now. There is no one absolute Now, but a now for all individual
> things. All things are relative, defined by all other relative things, as
> are all moments.
>
> Sorry, I've not expressed myself at all clearly. There's a lot more to be
> said on this subject; I've got a whole book's worth. Now that I've
> introduced this, though, I'll try and flesh it out, and in that make some
> sense.
>

Actually, this is very clear. I hope you don't mind if I save it with the other
things I've gathered from this group that have the potential of being the text
for a picture book.

What you're saying here parallels the discussion going on about the quandary of
defining the Principle of Quality, but again, from a different perspective.

I expecially like "the N of Now". It's a vivid phrase that tweaked my
perception.

Maggie

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