A Little Hub about the Nature of Time
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This may be the most important hub you ever read. I feel as if I just had an epiphany, and I wanted to share it with you...
Like many people, for most of my life up to now I have been labouring under the supposed effects of the past. It suddenly occurred to me, however, that THE PAST IS OVER.
Time is Not Cyclical -- It is a Line, A Progression
For some reason it always escaped my notice that history cannot repeat itself. An event in the past, even if it occurred only a second ago, has now gone. It is i finished. It is over.
For this reason, expecting negative experiences to be around the corner, simply because the coming event bears similarity to a past event that was negative makes no sense: EVENTS ARE DISTINCT. EVENTS CAN NEVER BE REPEATED. NO EVENT IS IDENTICAL... IT CANNOT BE.
Liberation
This, for me, is a tremendously liberating realization. It means that I cannot worry about anything happening right now, or anything that will happen in the future, because I cannot predict the nature of that event. Everything that happens is new. It has not happened before. I have not experienced it before.
The Uniqueness and Complexity of People
This is even more true when you are talking about events that involve human beings. Without question, nothing could be more complex, nothing more unpredictable, than a human and his or her behaviour. People are erratic, and their actions hard to foresee.
For this reason, each day, each moment, is a tabula rasa, a new, clean page, upon which nothing has yet been written.
No Worrying about the Future
This means true liberation from worry. The people around you, the events about to happen, cannot be predicted. Thus, trying to do so based on the past makes no sense.
Somehow, while I knew this rationally, I still believed emotionally, so to speak, that events in the past predicted events in the present or in the future. Now I realize the falsehood of this idea. I offer it to you, to help you stop worrying needlessly.
There truly is nothing to fear
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i used to do that as a kid - ponder about how quickly each passing moment was, only when i was in the present moment, i would tell myself this very moment, right now, will be just a memory in a few seconds, and i'd go, see? i'm already remembering it and it has become a memory. other little kids would
back
away
slowly
;)
fabulous hub!
well, I just haves a question. if time is not cyclical but linear, howcome clocks are shaped like wheels instead of straight lines?
anyway, dis ams a very interesting hub.
'k, bai.
~Quincy
Like most (or at least many) things, "Quincy", there is a contradiction concealed within the truth of the matter. Events are never identical to previous events, yet events frequently resemble previous events, which means that *aspects* of those events must be repetitive (otherwise how could they "resemble" each other?).
For example, the sun rises every day, but no sunrise is identical. But SOMETHING about every sunrise must be the same as every other sunrise, otherwise how could we come *close* to thinking of it as a repetitive phenomenon?
So, yes: time marches forward, no droplet of time identical to any that has come before it, but also things repeat themselves, over and over and over.
Ultimately, however, this Hub is not really about time itself, but about human perception of time (leaving out animals for the moment -- sorry Quincy). The point I am really making, without being completely explicit about it, is that no NEGATIVE event in the past can happen again in EXACTLY the same way, yet there appears to be a tendency in people to ASSUME that events that resemble each other in one or more ways will turn out the same -- and so they fear them if things had "turned out" badly in the past.
Having said all of this, I don't think most people's perceptions describe reality very well at all. My suspicion is that we are all in a Big Wheel of Time, but our normal human sensibilities cannot really perceive this, at least not on a day-to-day level. I've heard 'shrooms help ;)
Very interesting hub. I really like your conclusion: we can't control future events, and no past event will repeat itself, so why worry? I think if more people paused to think this way, there'd be a lot less anxiety and stress to go around.
Lovely post! Though what I've come to through reading of science & philosophy, exchanges with others, and to some extent experientially -- and which is equally liberating for me -- is closer to your comment to Quincy: that time is a simultaneity. We humans need to experience it as linear because of the way our brains and senses function inside our bodies.
I could go on, but you've inspired me to add this to my ever-growing list of "Hubs to write"! So eventually, I'll add more thoughts to this important subject of time.
I really appreciate your Adsense hubs, BTW.
Peggy W Level 8 Commenter 2 years ago
Sorry to disagree. We can and should learn from history so that we do not make the same mistakes. And while each day is a new one some patterns in people are deep and hard to change. Simple example: If one is a heavy smoker, chances are great that he/she will smoke the next day. If a child keeps skipping school and eventually drops out, I believe we can assume that the odds are great that he/she will not become a company CEO. Perhaps my examples are not the greatest, but perhaps you understand the point that I am trying to make. Our past does affect our future. Time is a thread that connects our yesterdays with our tomorrows.
All of that being said, each day presents a new opportunity for growth and change if needed. Also hope. Will be interesting to see what other comments you get.
Perhaps you were just baiting the hook? (Smile)