Poet Delmore Schwartz once said that, “Time is the fire in which we all burn.” Can we ever assume that this would be correct?
As a metaphor it may work but, as a concrete concept, it becomes transparent. Time is relative to its surroundings whereas fire is a living, breathing source of energy. Furthermore, to suggest that we all burn is negating the possibility that those things which burn are subsequently reborn. If we take natural forest fires for example, are they not the work of Gaia, opening herself up to renewal and rebirth?
I am sure that many can relate to the concept of time: fleeting, aging, passing through life without a sense of much achievement. This should not be the root of all mantras in life.
Schwartz wrote with a sense of foreboding, a warning perhaps of the well known phrase ‘Carpe Diem!’ or was it a rebel yell?
Conversely; if time is the fire in which we all burn, and through burning comes rebirth, why are we innately scared of burning? Why is it that we wish to avoid embracing the myth of the phoenix and trust that if Gaia’s way to renew is to first burn, then we, ourselves, never burn; only our outer expendable shell, naturally, through design of course, it is carbon based.
Which leads me deeper into the relative concept of time, a man made structure of chronology to map and mark the path of the metaphorical fire; why do we embrace time whilst equally and to a greater degree, fear it? How is it that we can desire to outrun the fire yet at the same time wish to ignite it? Should we, the human race, ever cease to exist, will time, at the same time, lose value and wither into a constant silent passage, observed only by the shifting rhythm of the planets?
As a metaphor it may work but, as a concrete concept, it becomes transparent. Time is relative to its surroundings whereas fire is a living, breathing source of energy. Furthermore, to suggest that we all burn is negating the possibility that those things which burn are subsequently reborn. If we take natural forest fires for example, are they not the work of Gaia, opening herself up to renewal and rebirth?
I am sure that many can relate to the concept of time: fleeting, aging, passing through life without a sense of much achievement. This should not be the root of all mantras in life.
Schwartz wrote with a sense of foreboding, a warning perhaps of the well known phrase ‘Carpe Diem!’ or was it a rebel yell?
Conversely; if time is the fire in which we all burn, and through burning comes rebirth, why are we innately scared of burning? Why is it that we wish to avoid embracing the myth of the phoenix and trust that if Gaia’s way to renew is to first burn, then we, ourselves, never burn; only our outer expendable shell, naturally, through design of course, it is carbon based.
Which leads me deeper into the relative concept of time, a man made structure of chronology to map and mark the path of the metaphorical fire; why do we embrace time whilst equally and to a greater degree, fear it? How is it that we can desire to outrun the fire yet at the same time wish to ignite it? Should we, the human race, ever cease to exist, will time, at the same time, lose value and wither into a constant silent passage, observed only by the shifting rhythm of the planets?