Sunday, September 7, 2008
Starting out in the Evening
It happens to many people, I'm sure, that who they are -- their true selves -- doesn't come out until the day has been turned off. Jobs and obligations take up the daylight, and after all of that the mind wants to switch to something truer. We read, write, watch, recreate, perform, as a way of re-defining in 2 hours the people we've been branded as in the previous 8. Now we have blogs and online profiles and avatars and emoticons that pretend to be us while our other selves are serving their masters. For some, however, this is insufficient for the expression of their identity, so the mind becomes a cage of ideas and opinions, firing wildly and burning hot at night, when it most needs to rest. Here I am. Blog free me.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Hand Holding
Now. The moment seems more present, more at hand, when it is nighttime, dark and quiet. Easy to focus on an idea, to obsess on a thought, on words. Like chewing a phrase over and over in your mouth until it becomes meaningless phonetics, morphing into gibberish before returning to familiar syllables of sound.
One of those words that has captured me in its grasp is maintenant, the french word for now. I am intrigued by the fact that, literally translated, it means "hand holding" (main=hand, tenant=holding).
What a strange pair of words to combine to mean "the present moment". Now...
Still, looked at another way, it makes perfect sense. Isn't the present the time that we hold in our hands? The moment we can grasp? Perhaps the French think time is a tangible object, and when it is passing us, it is touchable. The past, the future -- both out of reach -- cannot be held. But now is right here.
And then I look at the english word "maintenance", rooted in the french word...what does it mean? It means "upkeep", e.g., keeping the condition of a car or a building current, up to date -- in the NOW. And, of course, maintenance is very often achieved with the use of the hands: Hands holding a wrench, hands holding a screwdriver...
So, what about the image that first comes to mind when you hear the phrase "hand holding"? Two people -- a father and a son, a caretaker and an invalid, lovers -- sharing each other's touch. So simple, almost quaint; but when two people hold hands, that touch can pull them into the moment like a jolt of electricity, making them the lucky, momentary bearers of the light -- and delicate -- now.
One of those words that has captured me in its grasp is maintenant, the french word for now. I am intrigued by the fact that, literally translated, it means "hand holding" (main=hand, tenant=holding).
What a strange pair of words to combine to mean "the present moment". Now...
Still, looked at another way, it makes perfect sense. Isn't the present the time that we hold in our hands? The moment we can grasp? Perhaps the French think time is a tangible object, and when it is passing us, it is touchable. The past, the future -- both out of reach -- cannot be held. But now is right here.
And then I look at the english word "maintenance", rooted in the french word...what does it mean? It means "upkeep", e.g., keeping the condition of a car or a building current, up to date -- in the NOW. And, of course, maintenance is very often achieved with the use of the hands: Hands holding a wrench, hands holding a screwdriver...
So, what about the image that first comes to mind when you hear the phrase "hand holding"? Two people -- a father and a son, a caretaker and an invalid, lovers -- sharing each other's touch. So simple, almost quaint; but when two people hold hands, that touch can pull them into the moment like a jolt of electricity, making them the lucky, momentary bearers of the light -- and delicate -- now.
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