NOW

I stubbed my toe on a rock April first twenty-twelve at one minute past twelve noon. It was a sunny springish Monday afternoon. I stubbed my toe on that same stone three days ago. You guessed it. Yes. I am a time traveler. Why, you don’t believe me? Well actually I only travel in the middle part of time. The NOW. I don’t need to travel to those other parts of time, the past and the future. I have that stone with me now. . . and now. . . and now. . .

If I spread out a handful of rocks all around me when are they? They are now. If I walk up to a rock when is it? Now. If I pick it up now when is it? Now. Can I pick up the rock in the past or the future? No. I can only pick it up NOW. Think of time as rocks positioned in a straight line from left to right. Events (the rocks) are moments of time. Time can be likened to an infinity of rocks layed out in a straight line from left to right. When you walk past the rocks in the direction of left to right this is like time “moving forward”. Way behind you is a rock in a place called WHEN I WAS. Way ahead of you is another rock in a town known as WHEN I WILL BE. Once you walk past a rock you are forbidden to turn around and pick it up. You are only allowed to pick up rocks ahead of you. . . now. . . and then pick up the one in front of you, now. . . When you get to a rock ten paces ahead you can only pick it up in the the present, or the now portion of time. For a rock further up ahead you have to wait until you reach it, and then you pick it up. . . NOW, because you are forbidden to skip ahead. You are only allowed to pick up the rock a mile ahead by stopping at each stone behind it; first passing the stone to your immediate left before you can get to the stone to your immediate right in the line. You stop briefly and pick up a stone now. You can't clearly see the stone to your immediate right and you are forbidden by time to touch it.

To exist is to experience this moment NOW. If you are not experiencing at this moment you do not exist. Within the real world outside of the subjective experiences, there is no past or future, just NOW. You are blind to any given piece of reality until your awareness comes in contact with it aided by the senses. Awareness is blind until you have an interactive experience. You cannot experience a piece of reality until your conscious awareness touches it. . . NOW. . . and NOW. It can make an impression on consciousness again. . . NOW. You can pretend and imagine ‘experiencing ‘ subjectively ‘touching it in the future’ in your mind but you can only experience any piece of objective reality when you actually interact with it, NOW.

I was born as Charley and first experienced the world outside of the womb in 1957. Charley appeared as a mischievous toddler around 1960. I, Charley, appeared as an intellectually curious teenager in the 1970’s. Then Charley experienced is first occasion as a proud father when his first daughter took her first breath of air in 1988, and the first occasion of a second daughter September 8th 1989. I remember seeing her popping her head out staring at me and wailed away crying until her mother and I bonded with her and she was consoled. Essentially I remain CHARLEY through all these different appearances and experiences. I remain essentially who I am.

The truth is that, essentially, time lives inside of you; you do not live in time. These experiences and appearances arise within and pass through the essential unchanging YOU. YOU are like a cinematic screen. The scenery and the dramatics keep changing and moving but the screen is unchanging and unmoving; in your essential nature YOU are this constant unchanging and unmoving presence. Consider yourself as an INFINITELY HIGH IMMOVABLE MOUNTAIN. From the infinite summit a future rock is tumbling toward your "I" of awareness. As it inches on down, you barely perceive it until it touches your conscious awareness, NOW. This rock experience then proceeds into the infinite past. All that is left of the original rock experience is the impression it leaves imprinted on your subjective awareness. You can re-visit the subjective impression of the original rock experience, but only by recalling it anew. . .NOW

We use the concept of ‘dates’ to book mark and track these experiences and constantly changing appearances as they come into being, NOW and pass away. . .NOW.

True, without the concept of time ""I"" would have a great deal of difficulty organizing the accumulating impressions constantly being made by the many many various unique appearances and experiences that just keep piling up quickly as ""I"" interact with the objective external world, but time is really subjective.

You are like a blind man with only the sense of feel/touch. You can’t “see” the objective rock until you touch it, and when you touch it the time is now. It’s six-o-clock now and I am subjectively recalling/looking at the impression of the rock experience. . .NOW.

“What time is it" you ask? Why, it is now. Welcome, fellow time traveler. Travel with me to the now; we have to do it at this moment because this moment is the only time we have NOW.