Off the blocks

Next, the Nemesis

Will the next moon be better?

What was once the faint ticking as from a distant clock, has now become a constant prod to hurry and finish what I am doing, so I can move on to the next thing. The next thing is, of course, just the next thing and next to that, yet another next thing. There is always a next thing, no matter what school of philosophy we espouse, what method of meditation, what wine we are having. The problem is that each next thing comes calling early, before its time.

Checklists, to-do lists are useful and for me fundamental, at least as regards work. They do relieve stress, putting on paper things that, unless accounted for, might not get done. It seems that just writing down the to-do is the beginning of doing it. But as in nature, there is no action without a reaction, the harmless-seeming notation forms an impatient elbowing queue in my mind and in that confused, haphazard thinking place, there is no separation between work things and the next cut on an album, the next book to be read.

That is what makes this problem serious.

Impermanence, the Joys of

Squirrels in trees, husks on the deck.

Impermanence, like good hygiene, is handy on a day-to-day basis. As a concept, it is old and all cultures that I’m familiar with embrace it, if not consciously, at least in their writings. Impermanence, though,  is an old shoe and lacks novelty.

It is true, too, that impermanence is sometimes railed against when it takes the form of “evolution’ which was once a theory but is now all but accepted universally, save for a few holdouts.

For me it comes down to this:

• When things are going good, I must enjoy the moments for they are sure to turn.
• When things are bad, I can relax knowing that bad times don’t last forever and better times are sure to come.

I find impermanence sometimes uplifting. sometimes joyful, sometime sad, always useful.