Presence
Being there. No, I don't mean the excellent book by that title from Jerzy Kosinski. What I mean is being "present", at the most important time in anyone's life, which is "now".
source: Wikimedia Commons
The definition of "now" from the dictionary: "at the present time or moment". This is one of those things I realized only rather late in my life, but "now" is is the only time that counts. Not in the sense of living like there's no tomorrow, nothing like that. But in the sense that the present moment is the only existing reality. "Now" is eternal because everything happens right now. It always has and it always will. Max Planck has given us the constants that deal with the tiny, the Planck units, and one of them is Planck time:
In quantum mechanics, the Planck time (tP) is the unit of time in the system of natural units known as Planck units. A Planck unit is the time required for light to travel in a vacuum a distance of 1 Planck length, which is approximately 5.39 x 10−44 s.
But however big or small the units we measure time with, "now" is always the same, it's always there and it's always real. One Planck unit ago doesn't exist anymore, and a Planck unit in the future doesn't exist yet. And when it does exist, it's now. And all we seem to do all our lives is escaping that precious time as much as we can. We're almost never really present in the moment. Always remembering the past and imagining the future, skipping the now altogether.
Whenever we're dealing in our minds with past or future, which is, in my experience almost always, we're not dealing with the now, with the present moment. And I think that we do so at a great loss; being conscious of the present time, is being conscious of your present surroundings and the unfolding of events in these surroundings. Maybe there's a case to be made that minding the present is the only way to be fully conscious about yourself and your place in the universe.
I heard @clayboyn in a discussion with @globocop mention he thought time was just an illusion, to help us with sequencing events in our minds, and thinking about my life as a constant unfolding of an eternal "now" makes me wonder if he's right about that. Einstein's model of the universe also makes time something special to imagine; he says there's not space and time, but space-time, they're not separate. And if you then imagine that space-time as a 3D model, each moment in existence is a microscopic 2D slice from that model.
We're free to move through the three spacial dimensions, but we're constrained in our path through the fourth one: time flows in only one direction as an eternal sequence of interlinked moments, detectable directly as "now" only. Time has a lot of weird properties that set it apart from the other dimensions we can detect. It's one of those aspects of our wonderful existence we can't quite wrap our heads around. Did time begin at the Big Bang? And if so, is the question "what was there before the Big Bang" even a sensible one? And what if there's no beginning or end to all there is?
I don't have answers, only interesting questions. Well, I think they're interesting anyway :-) One thing seems evident for me though: being aware of the "now", really paying attention to it helps me understand myself better, gives me a better grounding in reality by being aware of everything that unfolds around me at that moment. Really Being There. It's something I need to do more though; take the time to experience time as it unfolds.
That's what I wanted to share with you all today, just some thing to think about. I also want to point you to @clayboyn blog and his latest Coffee and Philosophy show on msp-waves. If you're at all interested in all things philosophy, go check him out. As always, I thank you all for visiting my blog now and hope to see you all back here tomorrow!
Recent articles you might be interested in:
Thanks for stopping by and reading. If you really liked this content, if you disagree (or if you do agree), please leave a comment. Of course, upvotes, follows, resteems are all greatly appreciated, but nothing brings me and you more growth than sharing our ideas. It's what Steemit is made for!
Just for Full Disclosure, I'm invested in these crypto-currencies:
Bitcoin | Litecoin | EOS | OmiseGo | FunFair | KIN | Pillar | DENT | Polymath | XDCE | 0x | Decred | Ethereum | Carmel | XYO
Legend! It is always Now, and its not just you who has only thoughts of past and future, 99% do! Who ever has the thought arise often that says "its now"? Not many due to repetative mind thinking patterns, and the ones who can say that now is now throughout the day when they see a past or future thought arise.
I think " the kingdom of heaven" as mentioned in the bible could be the eternal present moment?!
If you havent read it yet, check out "The Power of Now" you will enjoy it lots 😆
Thank you @movingman, you know I love your comments always :-) And I will certainly look at "The Power Of Now" if I can find it; thanks for that recommendation my friend!
Its also as audiobook on pootube 😊
I saw this post in a previous now, but I had to cycle back to it. I think of the way planets move and galaxies and shrink that down to how we move and how subatomic particles move. Always in relation to something. Maybe we are free radicals, hard to say without a greater perspective. I just know I wouldn't be here now doing this if you weren't there doing what you are doing and it's all just a giant endless stream of cause and effect in my mind, but it's always now. I don't know what comes next at the moment but I'll remember eventually. Now where was I...
Thanks for a great response, @clayboyn :-) Sorry for the late reaction... Your remarks on time in the interview with @globocop were actually the inspiration to write this little post, so twice thank you ;-) And thanks for that entire interview to: all of it was a joy to hear!