Not only are we harried by time, we seem unable, despite a thousand generations, even to get used to it. We are always amazed at it–how fast it goes, how slowly it goes, how much of it is gone. Where, we cry, has the time gone? We aren’t adapted to it, not at home in it. If that is so, it may appear as a proof, or at least a powerful suggestion, that eternity exists and is our home.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on humanity's struggle with the passage of time, suggesting our souls yearn for a connection to eternity.
Sheldon Vanauken's quote articulates a profound discomfort that people experience with time. Despite countless generations living through it, we often feel alienated from its passage, constantly questioning where it has gone and how it moves. This struggle and disconnection may imply that there is a different existence, one of eternity, which feels more like our true home. The quote invites contemplation on our relationship with time and eternity.
In practice
In a discussion about the nature of time during a philosophy class.
…though I wouldn’t have admitted it, even to myself, I didn’t want God aboard. He was too heavy. I wanted Him approving from a considerable distance. I didn’t want to be thinking of Him. I wanted to be free—like Gypsy. I wanted life itself, the color and fire and loveliness of life. And Christ now and then, like a loved poem I could read when I wanted to. I didn’t want us to be swallowed up in God. I wanted holidays from the school of Christ.
Do not paint a picture either of God or the devil on your walls: this will ruin both your walls and the atmosphere.
I felt myself in a solitude so frightful that I contemplated suicide. What held me back was the idea that no one, absolutely no one, would be moved by my death, that I would be even more alone in death than in life.
[Government] regulation is an imperfect substitute for the accountability, and trust, built into a market in which food producers meet the gaze of eaters and vice versa.
Yes, hope is a strange thing. Peace at last. But at what price?
Prayer covers the whole of man's life. There is no thought, feeling, yearning, or desire, however low, trifling, or vulgar we may deem it, which if it affects our real interest or happiness, we may not lay before God and be sure of sympathy.
Helping, fixing, and serving represent three different ways of seeing life. When you help, you see life as weak. when you fix, you see life as broken. When you serve, you see life as whole. Fixing and helping may be the work of the ego, and service the work of the soul.
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