We are eternal creatures having a time-bound experience. Often we wish that we could slow time or make it go faster. This reflects the difficulty we have with time – it’s not what we’re used to.
Some time ago, or maybe it was yesterday, someone shared with me difficulties she was having with her mother. Her mother said some insensitive words. Truly. Someone was hurt.
I was thinking of something I might say. I was worried that she might say or do something in response to her mom that might further harm the relationship. Didn’t want that to happen.
I thought that maybe she could use “time” to her advantage.
Some time, in the future, maybe when time isn’t such a big deal any longer, she’s going to meet her mom. Her mom will have worked through all her pain and her mom will feel nothing but love for her daughter. They will embrace. Reconcile. Walk hand in hand thanking each other for their time together.
I said, “Maybe you can pull that event forward to today. It’s going to happen. Why not have that experience now? Imagine reconciling with your mom. Behave toward her now how you will feel toward her in the future. Cheat time.”
I was trying to help someone, that idea is helping me.
Reflecting on what I said, this, by C.S. Lewis came to mind:
“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”
Her mom is an “everlasting splendor.” In time, that embrace will happen.
Yes. Cheat time. Treat it like the imposter it is.
