When I first learned to water ski, I’d fall. Being so determined, I kept holding on to the rope. Relief from the thrashing I received came when I learned to let go.
NO CLOCK ON THE ETERNAL
I have an old Palm Pilot. Actually, I have five, but only one that still works. To the outside world, my reasons for using this antiquated gadget are to keep a calendar, address book, calculator and memo pad, among other mundane applications. It’s an ancient device by modern digital standards, but it works and it’s cheap. There’s no subscription fee and they practically give them away on eBay. Inside my world, the reason I keep the PDA is to play Minesweeper.
Compared to the cutting edge of the Xbox world, it’s a simple game. On the Palm, it’s a grid of 110 squares, some of which have hidden numbers, ranging in value from one to eight. These numbers, when safely identified, tell how many of the 30 “mines” are in contact with that particular square. Those are the only clues you get. The object of the game is to navigate the field in order to expose all of the concealed “mines” without blowing up. If you touch a mine, it’s game over.
It’s a game of chance, but also of logic and intuition. I view intuition as the result of subconscious experience. On some level, we recognize a thing for what it is, without being fully aware of it. Typically, we dismiss this process as intuition or a sixth sense of some sort. In any case, it is an entertaining part of the game. Logic is another . Figuring out what can be or cannot be is fun. The third part is luck, which is most like life itself. There are always going to be things that we can’t control.
The game is a little like retirement in that there is no clock. It can be played in a minute or a year, and it makes no difference. There is no race or urgency, no time sensitivity. In that aspect, it is also eternal. Our modern world relegates eternity to residents of cemeteries, the epilogue to this life we think we are about. But we don’t live outside of eternity. We live in it.
Though the world appears confused and filled with despair, signs of the eternal are all about. If we fail to see them, we aren’t looking in the right place. Whatever is perennial or timeless leans in that direction. If something seems indifferent to the whimsical world of man, it may be eternal. Newton’s Laws, the Periodic Table and the Mind of God qualify. Temporal machinations, human toils and troubles, and dreams do not.
“To see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wild flower. Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour.”
~ William Blake