Transcend Time - Railroad Station Metaphor

In order to understand our responsibilities for self-reliance, we must transcend the popular conception of time. We must also understand something about the role of civilization and the collective will. In short, we must take on the responsibility of understanding the meaning and purpose of life to the extent where everything else becomes subservient to that cause. At least that is the way I see it now. Of course, I didn't always see it this way, but when your life is on the line you get serious. I did, however, have an inclination toward that goal all my life.

But I can see that I have just written myself into a verbal trap. My wife, and others, have told me that I have a habit of making big statements, and that sometimes I talk in circles, and that I am prone to seeing things in ways not common. I tend to agree, but you have to understand—sometimes I confuse myself. That is when I like to stop, take a break, laugh, and relieve the tension before I begin again. When you are talking to people, you can do this, but with writing—I must admit—I am still feeling my way. So, when I re-read my last six or seven sentences before this break, I realized that some of my thoughts covered a vast amount of territory and need further clarity.

Starting with the sentence, "We must transcend the popular conception of time," what do I mean?

I mean: we cannot close our minds to the conditions, and beliefs we inherit from the past when we attempt to understand a present day problem or illness. Virtually, nothing is a product of today. We are, so to speak, a product of our past. Not the kind of past we were taught in grammar school though, but rather a type of "Living Past" in which we move and have our being. Said another way, we might liken time and reality to a railroad station where there are incoming and outgoing trains: the railroad station being our consciousness of the present: the incoming trains being our past and the outgoing trains being our future. . . our present responsibility being to monitor and direct the process by either accepting or altering the course of the incoming as it moves through into the future. Of course, time is a little more complex, because in reality, we would also be riding the train.

Feedback Page

CONVERSATIONS

My Earliest Days

Recollections of WWII

Music Touches Me for the First Time

The Grand Island Experience

Individual and Collective Error

Pain - Notes