I suggested in an earlier post that time is not a lava flow that is liquid and dynamic until it reaches the past, at which point it hardens to rock.
If not lava, then what? How does the past keep flowing when it’s no longer present (except as the “present of the past”)?
Perhaps (very much perhaps) something like this: Time flows from the future into the present, where we are moving toward the future. We in the present catch it (or most or some of it), and then the past moves with us toward the future. As more future comes to us, we catch more and more past in the present (with leakage). The present has to expand to hold all the ever-accumulating past (more and bigger archives, more memorials, more holidays).
I’m thinking of a superhero (or video game hero), walking toward a villain. The villain keeps throwing flaming darts at him. Some he sees coming, and is able to capture; some surprise him, but he’s still able to catch them; some surprise him, and he can only dodge them; some hit their mark but, hey, he’s a superhero so he keeps moving forward.
The ones he catches, he puts into his superhero-magic pouch that keeps getting bigger as he puts more stuff in it. He’s gaining ammunition, so that when he gets to the villain he’s armed to the teeth.
A picture, and a crude one. But maybe useful.
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
