Retail Time, Measuring “Now” and Seeing the Future

Episode 10

Welcome to Minding Your Mind, a weekly show for those looking for new thinking about old knowledge in the areas

of Time, Living, Success, Health, Love, and Happiness.

In episode 9, I talked about the days of the week…, gratitude and how we should be guided by our state of mind and not necessarily time.

Today…, one of my realized perceptions of Time draws a distinction between what I call “Wholesale” Time, and…, “Retail” Time.

Hello, I am William Garcia, Philosopher and author of the book titled Now O’ Clock…Being Mindful, it Always is.

For most of my Life, I was blissfully unaware that I was a “retail” consumer of Time. I had always been preoccupied with quantifying it with watches and calendars.

Furthermore…, I realized that keeping track of Time allowed me to wrap my mind around the numbers that tell me how much Time there is or what time it is.

However…, there is nothing about Life and being alive in this calculus…, and I believe it is simply because Life exists only in the moment, and there is no way to calculate its precise measure.

But we will try anyway…, Ok?

Also in this episode…, I go off track a little to talk about seeing the Future… It would seem we actually, do.

You will really have to mind your mind for this one.

We live in increments of Time…, increments I refer to as, “Constant Instances” …, the reality of which is, that “Now” is the only Time, and all the Time there is…, and as such, it is “Whole.”

This being so, we should be always mindful that we live only in the Now, and that Now cannot and need not be measured as far as “being” alive is concerned. Still…, we are conditioned to measure time.

For how and when the retail use of Time conditioning may have come about…, I use my birthday as one example.

We all have a birthdate, right? For me, it is September 11, 1955…, and when Time elapses to that date, it is tradition that I celebrate my Birthday.

Personally, I don’t see the sense in celebrating on 9/11…, and it has nothing to do with the horrific terrorist attacks in the U.S. in 2001.

The reality is…, that I was not born on September 11, 1955. That day is measured in terms of being 24 hours long, 1,440 minutes long, or 86,400 seconds long.

It did not take 24 hours for me to be born. In fact…, I was born at a precise moment in Time in the past, on a date we memorialized then as we do now…, as 9-11-55.

To be precise, I do not have a Birthdate…; I have a Birth-Moment…, a Birth-Now.

Personally, I don’t celebrate my so-called birthday…, my friends and family do…, and because there is usually chocolate cake, my favorite…, I invite myself.

It’s always a good time when I am with my children, friends and other family members. However, they seem to enjoy my birthday more than I do…, and that’s OK with me. Just let me eat cake.

By the way…, I am still waiting for someone to wish me happy birth-now.

In episode 9…, I mentioned what I referred to as so-called ordinary days; that as such…, they vastly outnumber the celebratory days. That, therefore, more times than not…, most of the best days in any given year will not be one of the days we traditionally celebrate…, and it includes your so-called, Birthday.

For this reason, I rather think of 9-11-56 as the first of 65 anniversaries since my birth on 9-11-55…, and nothing more.

As far as I know, it has always been tradition to celebrate “Birthdays.” However…, two things to keep in mind when thinking or talking about customary celebrations.

First…, Time does not repeat…, and because it does not, we are always changing and evolving toward the inevitable.

It is the 180 degrees experience I mentioned in episode 3.

A quote titled, ONCE.

“No one “is”. We are all continuously becoming who we are to “be” as Time elapses. Therefore, it is impossible to “be” the same “you” twice. In other words, you will ALWAYS NEVER be the same”. 

My “Birth-Now” occurred in an instant in Time…, and when I run out of Life…, it will happen in an equal instant at a precise moment in the future. In other words, just as I was born some Now ago…, so will I die, now.

Of course, I say Now…, simply because…, it always is. Now has no date.

Furthermore, and I’ve said it before…, whether you realize it or not…, we always live and die in the present…, in the Now.

Also…, just as we were assigned a Birth date…, so too will we be assigned a date of Death… It is a record-keeping detail. That’s all it is.

There will be an instant when my life is no more, as when I was born…, and it began.

A quote titled, Living in Constant Instances.

“When “Spermo” met “Eggly” in my mother’s womb, conception occurred in an instant, and I have been living in constant instances ever since, so have you. I have always lived and continue to live “Now”; so, do you”. 

Shifting gears here…, I would like to talk about what I believe is another kind of Birth.

When we were born, it was a physical birth. We were not born with knowledge. We had no “knowing” about “being” alive, as Master Han would have you believe.

However, we were born with the essential natural basic instincts necessary to thrive, as we were cared for.

Infants can react to sound, temperature, movement, and so forth. However, the infant’s most important instinct is to suckle, thereby allowing it to be nourished so that it may survive and grow.

Infants also have a natural capability to learn, as they are born as empty vessels to be filled over Time with knowledge, experience, and wisdom.

As we grow, we develop a conscious Mind and every time we learn something new or awaken in the morning after being sound asleep, our conscious mind is expanded or reborn.

Does this make sense to you? I hope it does because it is consistent with the inevitable and continuous “becoming” of our “selves” with the passage of Time. It is consistent with the impossibility of being the same “You” …, twice.

Getting back to “retail” Time. Here is a quote you may have heard and…, may live by. “Today is the first day of the rest of your life”. Do you know it?

Anyway…, here again, Time is referenced in “retail” terms.

I said it before…, we cannot live one day at a time and…, we do not.

Time with respect to Life is “whole”, simply because Now is the only Time and all the Time there is… Period.

In wholesale terms, today is not the first day of the rest of your life. It is “Now” that is the first “Time” of the continuous beginning of the rest of your life, and until your sun sets.

This is true simply because it is always the first Time you live in this, present Moment. It is when and where we always live. It is true…, we always live on the edge of time.

If there is any doubt, here is an example to prove my point: Let’s just say it is nine o’clock in the afternoon according to the most precisely calibrated Time measuring instrument available.

From this precise point in Time, 9:01, is a Time without life…, without you…, without me. It is a Time that exist only in your mind until it elapses to Now, and you being alive in it…, for the first time.

By the way…, I realize I said “nine o” clock, in the afternoon. I did…, because it makes no difference. It is always Now O’clock…, and we are always new, or at least different…, every Time…, every Now.

A quote titled, The New You.

 “In the beginning, and as it will ALWAYS continue to be, there is only Time, there is only Now and the ALWAYS becoming of the brand new You”. 

Bouncing around here…, I want to get back to the numbers used to mark and measure Time. These make it easier for me to wrap my mind around the concept of Time measured in retail terms, than it is to wrap my mind around the concept of Time as being…, “Now.”  

The invention of numbers is what has made the concept of Time conceivable. Numbers allow us to manage our lives in terms of how much time we need to do this or that…, how long it will take to get there from here…, how long we have lived…, and so on and so forth.

Numbers have made Life in a modern world…, practical and manageable.

Time is another matter in terms of how we measure “Now”. Well…, we don’t…, we don’t have to. Besides, it is impossible to measure the present Moment…Really…, it is. The closest I’ve seen “Now” measured, is in sport events and in scientific tests.

In sports, there was a time…, long ago, when the winner was determined to have won by a second or two. Now…, that determination is measured in fractions of a second or microseconds.

Moreover, and amazingly…, in scientific tests, we can measure Time in terms of nanoseconds…, which is one billionth of a second… Imagine that.

This may be as close to an Instant…, as close to now…, as you can get.

Now…, try to wrap your Mind, or mind your mind, around this: “Now” … is even shorter. It sounds crazy, right. But it is real.

 Anyway, if we tried to measure “Now” …, we would always come up long. Because just the thought of measuring “Now” requires Time to elapse…, and that is before we even begin.

In other words, to measure “Now” …, it takes Time, time which will always be longer than Now.

Furthermore, the use of Time is necessary in the absolute to form a thought…, much less to perform an act. Still…, Time stops for no one, or nothing.

Therefore, as we tried to measure the Present Moment…, we would have to continue to add to “Now”, elapsed instances, while “Now” becomes “Then”, which will have already elapsed, and continue to elapse, never getting a precise measurement.

At best, we could only have what I call…, a “Running” answer.

Are you confused yet?… I won’t be surprised if you are. I told you this was going to get weird.

In the end, we can only estimate or, better yet not even bother with the measurement of “Now” when it comes to “being”. Instead, we should just, Live-along.

A quote titled, Cloaked.

“Our entire lives are cloaked in the Moment; in the Now. Consequently, we live our entire lives in our own individual bubble of Time that eventually burst when we run out of Life”. 

Until then, consider that the saying…, “He/she is in his/her, own world”, merely references being suspended in thought…, not Time.

Here, I am talking about “being” in Time as you are, and as everything is, without judgment.

Anyway, the subject of the Now is not something we delve into deep discussion about…, and I believe it is either because it is too simple a concept for most to wrap their minds around, or that we are too busy existing in our own bubble of time.

I ask myself this question…, how do I wrap my mind around something that already has my mind wrapped?

I may never be able to answer this question. Maybe, the answer exists on the other side of Time itself. To get there however, my bubble will have to burst for me to find out. Even then…, there may be no answer.

In the end, the question is left for Philosophers, Monks, and Meditation Gurus to ponder; someone like myself. Perhaps now, that the question is on the table, someone like you.

Anyway…, the simplicity of Life becomes complicated when we start school, are taught the one, two, threes’ and the A, B, Cs, so that we can learn equations, formulas and concepts to solve and understand ourselves and Life’s complexities.

Still, this knowledge does not change the reality that there is no Life an instant ago…, nor is there Life an instant from Now…, and that only because there is Life, and I know, do I speak these words.

So…, I leave the measuring of Time to those whose interest it is to do so. Meanwhile, I will just, “be” …, just live.

A quote titled, Only One Time.

“The fact is that nothing happens outside the Now. Nothing happens without Time, and there is one and only one Time … “Now”.

If it seems to you that I am oversimplifying the idea of Now…, the fact is…, I cannot. It just can’t be done. The concept of the Present Moment with respect to our lives is as simple as it gets.

On the contrary, I am actually amplifying the concept in “retail” terms. There is no other way to express the idea…, and of course…, it takes Time to do so.

It could take more than a lifetime and…, as long as this may sound…, remember…, “Life lasts but an instant.”

I want you to stay with me now. Because what I am about to say may cause you to think that I may be a little off. OK…, a lot off, and maybe I am.

I have talked about this with others, and they thought I was being a little strange, OK…, a lot strange. I hope to get a different reaction from you since this is the first time I talk about it in a space like this.

Ready?… Ok….  It occurred to me ask myself this question. “Do we see into the future”? Notice the question is not…, can we.

Regardless, it sounds like a silly question, right? I know. But stay with me. Talking in terms of Time and Space…, maybe we really do see into the future.

Let me try to explain.

For example, from where I am now sitting, I can see the house across the street through my window. It is the same time in my house as it is there…, at least so long as the house stays in sight, and I stay in place. However, if I were to start moving toward the house, it would be as Time elapses.

I figure it would take about a minute or two to get from here to there. Knowing this…, here is where it gets weird. Am I…, in real Time…, seeing into the future?

Perhaps I am…, because as I move in Time and over Space toward the house…, and as Time continues to elapse…, I am seeing the house as I approach it, and until I get there.

In numerical terms, let’s say that I started moving toward the house at 9:00 and got there at 9:02. That’s two minutes moving in Time and over Space, while having the house in sight, while seeing the house as I approach it and then knocking on the front door.

It seems logical to me that the same applies when Meteorologists say during inclement weather…, that visibility is one mile on the ground if you’re driving or 10 miles if you’re flying. You are seeing where you are going as you are going and until you get there.

Do you “see”, what I mean?… Maybe not.

If this is so…, is seeing into the future limited to people, places, and things within our sight and ability to get from here to there? I am not sure what to believe. I am being curious, and just asking.

Perhaps there is a mathematical or scientific answer to the question and so…, I defer to the experts. Still…, what do you think…, a little or a lot?

I told you this episode would be weird. It’s not what people usually talk about.

Our relationship with Time whether wholesale or retail…, the exercise of measuring the Now…, always never being the same and seeing the future, are not water cooler talk. But it is mind food, nonetheless. Maybe you can serve it up to weird people out.

Now is always a good time to reestablish our relationship with Time. Keep in mind though…, that any thought about the past or the future is not real Time. Neither is it retail or whole… It is just a thought.

In episode 11 I will talk about what we cannot and should not know, and the appreciation it deserves.

Be patient and keep an open mind.

Until then, stop by my website, nowoclock.live. There you will find more original, positive, inspirational and thought-provoking content you can mind your mind with. Share what you find there and spread any idea you agree is worth spreading. There is something there as there was here, for almost everyone. I hope there was for you.