Time, It Was
(21.12.2002 - 11:40 a.m.)

Mugshots

Name: Me
Diary: You're reading it
Regz says: There I was, asking you all to send pictures of yourselves, and I never joined in. So here's me, in all my unfettered glory. Or something.

If this gruesome picture hasn't mortally offended you, and you would like to see your Mugshot here, then click here to read how.

* * * * *

If our identity is constructed of our memory, and our memories change from day to day, then surely so does our identity. Each morning we have to wake up and remember who we are, how we got here and where we are heading.

But which influences which? Does our memory cause us to reinterpret who we are, or does who we are cause us to reinterpret our memory?

We are beings of time, that much is certain. We are bound by it and to it. It is the very basis of our existence; from the macro, through the micro, all the way to the meta. It is so fundamentally ingrained in our minds that we can't imagine a world without it. And yet somehow, we never have enough of it. Is it our friend or our enemy? Do we make use of it or squander it? Is it valuable or worthless? It's ambiguity is maddening, yet wholly fitting. Far from rigid, time is fluid; liquid even.

What would happen if we manged to stop it? If language gives us our sense of temporal continuity, and the breakdown of language can lead to a schizophrenic existence in a perpetual present, would the stoppage of time lead to the destruction of language? In short, the destruction of our very existence? If time ceased to be, would we?

* * * * *

It's Christmas week, and what does the headline of this morning's newspaper read? "Prepare for war, Blair tells troops." It would seem that Bush and Blair are determined to have their war, no matter the cost. How does Bush think that talking of a pre-emptive nuclear strike is helping the current situation in the Middle East? How does Blair think that sending 50,000 soldiers to the borders of Iraq is going to bring this to a peaceful conclusion? And how did we let these men become our leaders?

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Currently spinning: "Night On My Side", Gemma Hayes.

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