September 7, 1998

Test Time

This is an exam about time, life, and everything, but there is no time limit on how long you can spend on it.

Question #1: When did the test begin, and when did it end?

Answer #1

Many of you will say a few minutes ago and then answer the time when you finished it. You fail. Those of you who looked at when this e-mail was sent, you get a point for creativity, but fail nonetheless, regardless of your answer to part 2. If you were of a more Zen-like element and answered that the test has always been there and never ends, you pass, barely.

The true answer is this: "The test begins tomorrow, and it ended yesterday." This way, you are always preparing and endlessly learning from the past. No test really ever ends, it begins always a time before you take it; it goes on for years afterwards. We remember it. Life is a test, and we never really get to see the questions or know how we answered. All we do is remember how we think we answered and hopefully prepare our way for the next pop quiz.

Question #2: Which of these can be changed: the past, the present or the future?

Answer #2

The answer is all three. All of you answered the future, which always changes (or at least we think it does). And the present, our actions shape it. We live there.

But most are shocked that the past can be changed. Yes, George Washington will always cross the Delaware, and Einstein will describe the theory of relativity, but these are facts. They will always be true, but the interpretations will change. Look at in this way if you have doubts. The Jewish people can be described as the losers, the downtrodden of history. While no offense is intended, the record tells of the persecutions from the Black Death to the Holocaust, and even the Old Testament tells of injustices done to them. Even in modern times, there are the issues of the P.L.O. and everything. Yet, say in fifty years, peace does come to the Mideast. The Jewish finally have a homeland, a peaceful homeland after all they've gone through. They're winners now, winners who have struggled, not losers constantly struggling to say afloat. The past is viewed differently; it has changed.

Comments:

• just because you look at the past from different views doesn't mean you have changed the past, except for maybe in your own mind, but i guess if that's how you can deal with the past, then more power to ya. but what's done is done and there's no going back.
  -- Jeff