Precisely Now

Precisely Now All things happen, happen to one, precisely now. Century follows century, and things happen only in the present. There are countless men in the air, on land and at sea, and all that really happens happens to me. -Jorge Luis Borges, The Garden of Forking Paths In the pre-vaccine autumn of 2020, COVID entered our family. I fell ill and spent four weeks in isolation. Minutes stretched into hours. I cross-examined my life, attempting to answer an endless stream of unanswerable questions. Post recovery the questions still linger, as I piece together a puzzle of indeterminate reflection. Many of the reoccurring thoughts are not new. They take shape in the form of time which manifests itself as a collective comparison between past and present, weaving together a circular, imagined world inside of one which already exists. Time’s passage appears quietly, as an introverted guest. It looks like splendor, torment, is rational and messy. It can be generous and deceptive. Sometimes unavailable. We’re given the time we have… these are my observations.