We have time

by Aiden Enns | Published 21st March 2017 in Ways of Seeing

Credit: Pietromassimo Pasqui

Hi, this is an excerpt from my editorial in the issue we just shipped to subscribers:

“Buddhist mystics focused their attention on impermanence. That is, nothing lasts. The writer of Ecclesiastes had the same feeling. All is vanity. It’s all meaningless, because, in the end, we’re all going to die: “A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.” (Ecclesiastes 1:4)

“This takes the pressure off, doesn’t it? Maybe that’s what enlightenment is; salvation could be a deep acceptance of grace, a paradoxical mix of futility and providence, that things go on in spite of our best efforts and worst failings. This can induce a a sense of freedom, a freedom to move in a life-giving, deeply gratifying direction.”

I look upon this passage and other things I write with both appreciation and suspicion. I like coming to the vague realization that things are going to be okay, even if they get ugly. But I also suspect this realization is the fruit of privilege. And so I continue.

Online viewers can see the editorial “If Time is Fleeting, Care While We Can” here. Subscribers can read the editorial on recycled paper any day now because it should be in you letter carrier’s hands or on your doorstep soon.

Enjoy.

Aiden Enns, Editor

Image: cc, Pietromassimo Pasqui, Flickr.com