Time Present and Time Past

Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.

- T.S. Eliot, "The Four Quartets"

Time is a funny thing, is it not? It distorts our memories - sometimes it feels to us that time is speeding by so quickly, whilst other times it feels that time is creeping just barely. Like holding infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour, to borrow from William Blake. Sometimes it feels like something happened yesterday, when it was actually 10 years ago that it took place. We are stuck in a sort of time tunnel. We are not actually able to slow it down or speed it up, unless we move away from the fixedness of our planet earth. I won't go into that, but it is fascinating to consider that time is not the same everywhere in our galaxy and universe, but for us it remains linear.

But something simple like a very quick stop at the grassy foot of my old college chapel one morning sets my mind to wondering back into memory of my years past on this campus. Day in day out, walking these paths under the low-ceilinged esplanades to class and into the buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. I appreciated my time in college when I was living on campus. I am a lifetime student in my heart. I loved exploring the buildings and getting to know their history, and I loved learning in the classrooms. 

I was a very studious student, foregoing many social activities to study. Immediately after college I had a little regret not being more social, but now I don't. Because that is not who I am. I really am that studious girl who always has been and always will be happiest whilst wrapped in between pages of good books, and preferably surrounded by books as well. I behold the time I have and seek out that which I do not know, to acquire wisdom through the eyes and words of others. There is simply too much wonderful in our world to learn, read, and ponder.

The campus of cement blocks shaped into buildings with odd alcoves and layers, completed with triangular edges somehow feel like they grow out of the ground, which was Wright's intention. I loved anytime I had a reason to go into the Annie Pfeifer Chapel, pictured here on a gleaming hot morning. It always holds a peaceful stillness held softly in the light streaming in from the tall steeple rising (like a bicycle rack as students used to say). There is comfort in familiar shapes used in utmost creative ways. It somehow holds together time present and time past.