Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Time is but a Concept

I thought, for a moment, in a seemingly big-picture sort of way, about how life is just day after day of meaningless action, which leads to nothing but death. In my mind I pictured a sort of chart of my life out in front of me. Day-night-day-night-day-night-day. But it then occurred to me that this supposedly big-picture point of view is really nothing but a retreat back into a very small mind. In imaging the endless procession of day and night, I had forgotten what day and night really are. They are not some abstract concept. Indeed they are only the experiences that make them up. It is these experiences which make up my universe, and my life. I am reminded of Wittgenstein, who wrote, "Death is not an event in life: we do not live to experience death. If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present. Our life has no end in just the way in which our visual field has no limits."