—> Deutsche Fassung: hier <—
Live for the moment, they say.
The logic behind this ever repeated piece of smart advice arises mainly from the fact that the past and the future only exist in our minds. The present, however, constitutes what we tend to call reality. Even though we are able to think beyond us, both forward and backwards in immense lengths of time, we remain instantaneous beings that are able to feel their very existence only when attention is paid to the current moment. But is every moment worth the perseverence? Strictly speaking, there are very few and if modern society has learned one thing, it is how to distract ourselves. It is often our senses that serve as a kind of crutch to help us back from the jungle of dreams, plans and memories into the world which we actually in- and exhale.
Compare it with traveling in a car, like a well-programmed machine – for several hours we automatically muse away and it is often a sunset, a melody or even a moment of imminent danger that draws the attention back to the present. Beauty and anxiety seem always here. Death and love always there.
★ blurs these imaginary boundaries, because it washes us away, drawing us into the ocean of a dying man. Weiterlesen