Time Times and a half

First there was Time; then there were Times. As Time ticks along, we find the Present. “As the present presents itself . . . next thing you know, it has surpassed us, and we have the Past,” the old man said. “Past? Say what?”, the young man queried. “Present has passed; so now we have the Past” the Old man explained. “But we do not have the Past” said the young man, . . .”because it is gone; it’s left behind us. So we do not have it anymore.” “Oh, but we do. It is written in the Books.” said the Old man.

The Young man’s phone buzzed some noise at him. “Hold on a second; I gotta take this.” “Sure” said the Old Man. . .”whatever floats your boat.” The Young man was inspecting his device. For the better part of a minute he read the text message. Then he pressed a few letters into the circuits of the Present and sent the letters into the Web. The Web passed the thoughts and words of the Young man into the Sender’s phone where they were delivered to the consciousness of the messenger. The Young man looked up from his device. “Ok. You were saying. . .” “Uh, I was saying it is written in the Books.” “Oh, yeah, right. I get it, like the history books, the Bible, Moses, the poems, the stories and poems and words of wisdom, Solomon, and stuff like that.” “Yes” the old man confirmed. “And you also have your philosophy books. . . Aristotle and Plato and, and Rene Descartes, who wrote: ‘I think; therefore, I am.” . . . and many thinkers and writers who came after them.” “Yeah, I’ve heard about that. . . all those guys from the Past. And now we’re talkin’ way back, way back in time.” “Yes, my boy. . . in Time.” “Yeah, like the magazine.” “That’s right. I mean, that’s part of it — a very small part of the whole legacy of literacy.” “My grandfather said it was kind of Lefty.” “Uh. . . the magazine, Time, Well, that’s a complicated subject,” said the old man. You have your Left and your Right; that is true. And you have more than one Time. There’s the New York Times and the Times of London, and the Los Angeles Times” “Whoa! That’s going way back, man!” “Well, no. It wasn’t so long ago, and the Times, Times and Times are still publishing.” “Right. I knew that. I saw some guy online railing about the Times.” The Old man laughed. “ The ‘Times’ do go way back. About 2400 years ago, the Prophet Daniel spoke of “times, times, and half a time.” “What did he say?” “It’s complicated, my boy; but Daniel said that, well, uh, long story short, there would come a time when a very bad person would come into power and decree a lot of bad policies and desecrations., and destroy many people and their institutions.” “Whoa, that’s some heavy sh**, man.” “Yes” agreed the old man. “Yes, it is quite serious. According to the prophecies, there would be another corrupt man who would come along, much later in time, and provoke a similar set of dire destructions and persecutions.” The young man pondered for a moment. “I have heard something about that. . . hitler.” he said. “Yes.” “Whoa! That’s some deep sh**t man! I’ve heard about that guy.” “Indeed”, said the old man. “His ‘third reich’, killed millions of people. He did not like the fact that the Jews and the Christians had written so many books to expose the foul deeds and conspiracies of his bully superman master race.” “You probably read about all of that in some old books,” said the young man. “Yes. But it’s ongoing. Time just keeps on going and going; and sometimes its not books; knowledge and understanding can come through art, or spoken word, poems, songs. . . When I was a young man, not so very long ago, a prophetic voice was raised when a prophet came out of the midwest, went into the big apple and began spreading the message that the “times were a’changin.’ And. . .Indeed they are. The times they are a-changin’. Always. Furthermore, my young friend, as Woody’s son , Arlo, had sang, a few years later, back in the day. . .”halfway home and we’ll be there by morning, through the Mississippi darkness rollin’ down to the sea.” “Whoa!” exclaimed the young man. “You lost me there. You’re way ahead of me.” “Or way behind,” mused the Old man. “I’m not sure which. Time is, you know, a funny thing. I’m still trying to figure it out. About all you can say, at the end of the day is. . . what goes around comes around, like the hands of a clock, or. . .Time is like water; it just keeps flowing along. Sometimes, it moves in currents and sometimes in streams. In some places it collects, in ponds, or lakes or oceans.” Selah. That reminds me, y’all. https://open.spotify.com/track/1zfGddC1N9WXbNxlOWTULB?si=84ef893eaa2e4a64&nd=1&dlsi=467916166f9346a7 Smoke