I was taken aback by an image on Page 77 of DTS: the suggestion that our “concern” could allow us to view the present as encompassing entire geologic eras.\u00c2\u00a0 My immediate thought was that a longer span of time can certainly be a subject for inquiry, but a presence in which I feel myself situated?\u00c2\u00a0 Surely not.\u00c2\u00a0 A test for the sense of being present could be: “I am here.”\u00c2\u00a0 Where and when am I here?\u00c2\u00a0 My lifetime?\u00c2\u00a0 Perhaps that makes sense.\u00c2\u00a0 In fact, if I think of my lifetime as the present in which I am living, it feels useful.\u00c2\u00a0 I am here in this lifetime and it won’t last forever.\u00c2\u00a0 This perspective is not an abstract index of events imposed from outside but an opportunity for presence.\u00c2\u00a0 Various threads of past and future issue out of the tapestry of my lifetime (not yet fully woven).\u00c2\u00a0 They move beyond the frame anywhere I think of things such as my parents’ lives before I was born, or wonder what will happen to my children after I am gone.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not at all like a single thread of time along which I happen to be situated.\u00c2\u00a0 This wider perspective certainly loosens the sense of linear time being the basis of my life. — Michael<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was taken aback by an image on Page 77 of DTS: the suggestion that our “concern” could allow us to view the present as encompassing entire geologic eras.\u00c2\u00a0 My immediate thought was that a longer span of time can … Continue reading