Well, I know that this post is a bit late (too busy doing vocab and such), but I was wondering about what was said in class about living in a certain time. I think it was Grace that was talking about choosing to live in the present, but is that even possible?
Every action we make is somehow connected to the past, right? 'Well what about a reflex?' you might ask. Well, even though you aren't thinking about what you're doing, isn't your body doing something that it remembers from the past? And even though you may not be thinking of it consciously, you do and say things that you is related to the past. For example, you are playing basketball in gym. Someone just passed you the ball and you go to pass it to someone else. Now, once you have the ball in your hands, for a split second, aren't you thinking about who to pass it to, thinking about what has happened when you passed it to a certain person before?
Basically, this is my point: we're always living in the past. I think that we can think about the future and the present, but for the most part, our minds exist in the past.
Mary Quien
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7 comments:
I agree with you, Mary, in the sense that we learn from the past and our actions are, for the most part, dependent upon past experiences, etc., when it comes to decision-making and reactions. I think the idea of "living in the present", though, simply means not dwelling on memories too much (because they will never happen again, no matter how much nostalgia, fear, anxiety, etc., we feel) and not anticipating the future too much (there's only so much control we have over things that have not yet happened). The idea, I think, is that we should enjoy each moment for what it's worth, and not waste our time wrapped up in something that we have little control over. This doesn't mean to say we should not study for the test, but play video games intead, but I think it does mean making the most efficient use of one's time and getting the most out of life.
(I hope that makes sense...)
Emily T.
Mary, I agree with your basketball example. We think about how past events took their toll. We analyze their results and the means we had taken to acheive those results. So then, can I make a generalization that the future is dependent upon the past?
I'm going to have to disagree on one point, however, and say that our minds most likely find a balance between the past and future. The present is somewhat of a playing field, where we organize tactics, but never quite seem to take action. By the time we DO take action, it is already in the past, and we begin to plot again.
Is it possible to have neither a past, nor a future, but have a present only? What kind of life would that be? Maybe there is a mysterious galaxy where such a thing exists. Crazy..
(Sam Maliha)
I agree with what everyone says about living primarily in the past, but don't we (as high-schoolers) also live much of our lives in the future? I feel that one of the major reasons why we live so much of our lives in the past is because we are worried about what consequences our actions will lead to in the future. For example, I could regret not studying hard enough for a history test, but that is mostly because I am worried about how this will effect my overall grade for the marking period. This therefore has an effect on my final grade, GPA, and finally what colleges I am accepted into.
For the next few years of our lives, I think we will begin to notice that we are living our lives mostly for the future. In high school we work hard and take a bountiful variety of SAT prep classes so that we can get into whatever colleges we desire. In college, we prepare ourselves for future careers. It isn't until we are done preparing for whatever life hands us that we are finally able to live in the present.
I don't think that it is possible to constantly live in the present, or any single time-related mindset for that matter. I can't think of any realistic example (fictional or otherwise) where a person has done this successfully. Please correct me if I'm mistaken.
(Paige Schlesinger)
Don't we really live most of our lives in the present? Yes we look down the road to college and sometimes we reminsce about the past, but for the most part, we are thinking about what is happening right now. How many times during the day do you really think about the future and the past? You have to think about the present in order to move forward. You don't necessarily have to enjoy the present (carpe diem), but you still have to live in it.
(Arvind Kalidindi)
Perhaps you cannot always consciously choose to live in the present, but it is still possible. (Like Arvind said, carpe diem, though when you and I were talking, I got the impression that you were talking about the instantaneous present rather than the long-term present, as in a day or an hour etc) Have you ever been swept away by a certain event or emotion (think: pep rally) that you do not have to choose or think to live in the present? You just know that it is so.
Some people can live though almost their entire lives like that, and while I'm not saying that it's completely healthy, it is a possible lifestyle. I guess the rest of us just have to spend most of our time regretting our past actions or whatever. Which brings me back to Arvind's point--carpe diem.
In logistical terms, all that we know and "experience" is through our senses. The extensional world only exists through our senses. The concept of "present" cannot truly be understood by human beings because our ability to interpret and process raw data from our senses is not instantaneous. There is a lag or delay beween the reception of the information, the transmission along nerve endings, and then processing through the brain to form a thought or "mental picture".
By the time something is processed and realized as a thought in our brains, the event has already happened.
Therefore, as far as biology is concerned, our extensional world is always one of the past.
(Steve Szumski)
I really agree with Steve's point. By the time we have absorbed the happenings that have taken place, the experience is already one of the past. Hayakawa tells us that extensional/intentional experiences are dependent upon the ambience within which they occur. Maybe this principle is applicable to the past, present, and future as well.
Like Paige said, we, as highschoolers, with out whole lives ahead of us, frequently look into the future. The elderly look back into the past. But what about kids like us whose lives end brusquely? Did they look forward to a future that would never exist? This is disheartening.
(Sam Maliha)
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