Past, Present, and Future

This isn't really a story.

Present, Past, or Future?

Tick tock, the clock keeps ticking away taking with it time we no longer have control of.

I can't say we ever had control of it. I don't believe you can ever stop time.

Is there a time when time began, or will there be a time when time no longer exist?

Was time invented by man, or did it automatically begin when man was first created?

Is there a difference between God's time and our own?

Can we stop the clock or turn it backward or fast forward it into the future?

I heard Superman could fly around the world so fast that he could reverse time. I highly doubt that is possible. The Laws of Nature would toss him out into deep space. You can't win against the Laws of Nature.

But then, that's all science fiction. You can imagine almost anything with science fiction.

We are time travelers, in a sense. We are constantly traveling from the past to the future. Sadly, however, and it's probably for the best, we cannot reverse the process.

That brings us to the present, which is where my quandary begins.

Does the present exist?

If it does, where is that fine line that separates the past from the future?

I am not in possession of a great scientific mind. I only have a smallish type scientific mind, if at all that.

I enjoy clear, bright evenings out beneath the stars studying their movements across the heavens.

I have my telescopes and star maps, everything an amateur, backyard astronomer might need.

As I look up I realize I am looking thousands of years into the past.

Some stars are so distant their light has not yet reached our little place in space.

Think of it. Light travels at 671 million miles per hour. That's faster than my Kawasaki!

But I still live in my quandary of the Present.

Where is it exactly in the schematics of time?

If you ponder the question deeply, you might conclude that the present does not exist, except in Grammar, of course.

We have the past tense; things that occurred sometime in the past,

we have the present tense; things that are occurring at this moment, and we have the future tense; things that are likely to happen sometime in the near or distant future.

In written language these things are a necessity in an attempt to place things in order of their occurrence. The world would be in total chaos without them.

I wonder, however, if, in real life, the present is actually a thing.

Are we split in half as we cross from one to another?

It's a puzzling thought.

Is it possible, as we walk through life, half our body is in the past and the other in the future.

As we step out into the future with our right foot, is our left foot slightly behind in the past?

I somehow doubt it, but it is an interesting thought.

And that is my current dilemma, wondering about the present.

There are minds out there far more sophisticated than my own that know the answer to such ponderings.

I am certain that one will come to my rescue and save me from myself, but please, use layman's terminology. Something a 3^rd grader can understand.

Hope you enjoy this goofy read.

Reviews

[Dave]

Like Carl, I enjoyed this too. I think is inherent in poets, at least, to ponder the questiion of where we are in the time continuum. Personally, I have often wondered what it would be like to go back in time and change just one thing in my life. Then of course, I'd have to decide exactly what that would be.

Take care - Dave

[carl]

I enjoyed the read very much - carl

[M.E.Lyle]

Thank you Carl. The future is always a fascinating thing.

[carl]

As we step out into the future with our right foot, is our left foot slightly behind in the past? ( think of it like being on a treadmill we are constantly moving one step at a time but never in the past or the future always in the present.

[carl]

If you ponder the question deeply, you might conclude that the present does not exist, except in Grammar, of course. ( The present is the only thing that exist ) the past is gone and the future never arrives.

[carl]

I prefer to think of it this way - We are standing still and time is like a road moving under us. where we stand is the present - the road behind is the past - the road ahead is the future.
Therefore we are constantly in the present the past is constantly gone behind us and the future is always and forever ahead of us.

[carl]

Is there a time when time began, or will there be a time when time no longer exist? - I say yes, both true.
- it automatically begin when man was first created? - yes Is there a difference between God's time and our own? God is outside of time, He is timeless.
- We are time travelers, in a sense. We are constantly traveling from the past to the future. Sadly, however, and it's probably for the best, we cannot reverse the process. (agree)
- where is that fine line that separates the past from the future ( the one is the present)