"We cannot put off living until we are ready. The most salient
characteristic of Life is its coerciveness: it is always urgent,
here and now without any possible postponement. Life is
fired at us point blank."
... Jose Ortega y Gasset read out loud by
It's never not this. Ever.
There's no place to be other than here. There's no time to be
other than now. Even when I was in the past (if you'll allow me
to say it that way), it was now then also. And when I'll
be in the future (if you'll allow me to say it that way), it'll be now
then also, yes? It's never not this. It's never not here. It's never
not now ... and we're thrown to deny it, to
resist
its domination, to try to disprove it, to pretend otherwise (by simply
refusing to get it), and to look for a way out, a way of
avoiding it.
It's human to deny it. No, it's more than that actually.
It's the other way around. It's denying it which
characterizes our human-ness.
There's never another place to get things done than here. There's never
another time to get things done than now. There's never more
time to get things done than now. To be sure, we've generated
plausible illusions entrenched in our most cherished belief
systems that there'll be more time (indeed, even a
better time) to get things done later. Some of our
most cherished belief systems suggest there'll be a better time to get
things done when our lives are over.
Listen: if there were another life, when you lived it it would be now,
and where you lived it would be here. As Gertrude Stein said referring
to her razed childhood home in Oakland California, "There's no
there there" (erroneously assumed to refer to Oakland
itself). There's no there. It's always here. It's always now.
And it's never not this. There's always only this space - the space we
are. And there's always only this time - which is now. Never not this.
Now, you can't get this intellectually, logically, or
rationally. And in spite of our best
intentions,
you can't even get this spiritually (which is one of the
many euphemisms for conceptually). Neither can you prove this in
an argument or by winning a debate in favor of it. You can't get it by
looking it up in a book in the library or by looking for it in a
.pdf online. But you can get it
experientially. You can get it by looking into the space and
noticing ie by telling the truth unflinchingly about
what's here.
It's always here. It's always now. It's never not this. Ever.
Here's what distinguishes real maturity and wisdom: the willingness to
recreate this experience bigger than
who we are,
the experience of it's "never not this" ... that, plus the
willingness to differentiate this experience of it's "never not this"
from our human thrown-ness which
futilely
believes it's otherwise.
