the only constant is change, flux. A fact bemoaned, for instance, by Tennyson in “Ulysses”, “The Lotus Eaters” and “Locksley Hall”. One is not the same person five seconds after whatever thought or awareness of self.
Process, then, turns out to be the most basic or fundamental fact or truth about human experience, perhaps nowhere more obvious when memory collides with present reality. My high-school friend Wayne in my hometown was back for a visit there and drove past where the old school was–a somewhat fearful/joyous structure that once seemed so real and permanent as he and I passed through there in three years.
Now it’s a hole in the ground and Wayne drove past, thinking he will never return. The kind of thought that prompted me to go to the 50th and final reunion–the year the school closed. Life is very much ‘pay close attention’, ‘keep your ears pricked for that which matters or signifies’ and ‘go back if and when you can’ or when the opportunity is there. Because it won’t be there the next day; only gone forever, like all your past.
There is something to what Viktor Frankl said about living events, and then they go into irrevocable storage. Well, at least as long as an individual memory and consciousness continue to flow.
“Carpe diem”–definitely. Don’t miss the Call. Absolutely. Don’t miss living the present one-time moment. Yup.
May you have many such.