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 Mason's
Meditations
If
you're looking for something to chew over, some thoughtful seeds
for mental cultivation, bookmark this page for Jeff Mason's fortnightly
meditations. To think in or take away...
Number
2. The Fiction of Forevermore
Everyone
knows that things change. Nothing much seems to stay the same. Nevertheless,
the mountains in whose shadow you were born, or the ocean in which
you swam, remain much as they were. People may build up towns in
the mountains and resorts by the beach, but compared to comings
and goings of humans and their creations, the sea and the mountains
are forever.
Metaphors
of forever abound in our common language. Especially where love
is concerned, the songs sing of it outlasting the sea and the mountains.
When the lover pledges love that will last until the mountains run
into the sea, we are to think that they never will. We have the
idea of forevermore. Also, when we hear of the eternal renown of
great poets, artists, philosophers, or political or military leaders,
we think they will be remembered forever. And when people speak
of their children as a gift to the future, there is an idea of forevermore
in the back of their minds.
These
are fictions, but endearing ones and enduring ones. There is no
such thing as forevermore. The mountains will erode. The sea will
dry up or freeze, the river change it's course. The artists and
the generals will be forgotten. It is only because our lives are
so short that we imagine that there are some things that never change.
When you start listening for the phrases of forevermore, you will
hear them in many places, but if they are just fictions, then why
do we need them so much?
Mason's
Meditations will next be updated on December 15th 2000
Previous
Meditations
1.
(15th November
2000)
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