Here
I am.
Anything I know
about the past,
is either based on hearsay
or memory.
Given the excruciating inadequacy of memory,
it is hard to conclude that anything remembered actually happened
or happened exactly as remembered.
Given the disappointing inadequacy of hearsay,
knowing that people will both lie and tell you the truth,
it is hard to conclude
that what we have heard about ourselves
is entirely accurate
or happened the way told.
Concluding that the past does not exist
is not hard to imagine.
Imagining that the past never existed,
while more difficult,
is for all intents and purposes equally true.
We are faced
with the reality of the now.
Concluding that the future does not exist
is not hard to imagine.
Imaging that the future will never exist,
while more difficult,
is for all intents and purposes equally true.
In time,
when we are somewhere other than where we are now,
this present time will also cease to exist,
and our memory of it,
will alter its truth as well.
Being faced with
“now”
we serve ourselves best
if we
be here now.
While I never was,
I always am.
By Charles Buell