unremembered present

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Strange thing, memory: It informs and infuses the present and yet is invariably inaccurate. Events and people that were stunningly bright or horrific in their moment are now veiled and blurred by judgment and affection.

"I remember it as if it were yesterday!" I suppose it's true -- those etched arrows or warming shawls -- but yesterday, while inescapable, is gone ... revised, remolded and never really the same. Does anyone say, "I remember as if it were today?"

I think it is in The Dhammapada that it says,

We are what we think
Having become what we thought.

Living in the past is often held up as a fool's errand, but what about all the nitwits running around saying we have to live in the present ... in what way are they any less foolish, any less bamboozled, any less lazy?

For me, this is a serious question -- one for serious men and women who don't lack courage. But it might well be just another philosophical bauble, something to bandy about in a term paper or over a pitcher of beer. Beer is nothing to sneer at: At least you get a hangover for your trouble.

My teacher once mentioned a "pointless point."

The stingy bastard didn't even pass the beer.
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