The Riddle of Here and Now

Here's a riddle to ponder: What do a fishhook, lockjaw, and telecommunications have in common? Times up. Answer: They will all get you by hook or by crooks who lock you in to a world of painful drama.

You can suffer through congressional sessions, get mesmerized at courtroom proceedings, and go into shock from viewer trauma - all without leaving the comfort of your screen albeit lifting a finger. You can be numbed to ever enjoy a meal again. The more you struggle to be free from the pain, the greater the captured reality. You are hooked, up and in, to a world of hurt for there are none so blinded as those who see it all in high definition (HD.)

Here's another one: What do spareribs, lactose intolerance, and the extra tire in your car trunk have in common? Need I answer that they all want to spare you the painful drama of over-doing, even over-enjoying, something that is better treated with moderation.

Ah, moderation - the virtue that refuses to be adulterated. The self-imposed austerity program that puts you, if not the economy, back on your feet again. The little bit that is enough, because good enough truly can be good for you. The tantalizing tension created by wanting what you have more than having what you want.

Let's start a movement towards moderation by moving away from created need.

Let's wake up to the wealth of our natural surroundings before we tune in to the poorly-concocted wordplay of talking heads in the media.

Let's put ourselves on a diet of mental concentration rather than multi-tasking our way to human oversights or, worse, oversight of humans entrusted to our care for the day.

Let's turn off our gadgets long enough to just be the only beings that can sense, if not make sense of, eternity.

An obsession with the here and now is a recent phenomenon. In fact, the Epicurean movement of moderation was based on the there and then. It went something like this: Here and now, I am unfulfilled and tempted to want more and more; but there and then, I am satisfied. Here and now, I am pressured to keep up; but there and then, I will receive compensation. Here and now, I think I can get a better thing at a better price; but there and then, a priceless and complete reception.

In the here and now, join the movement to the there and then; before there's nothing but the movement of your bowel, as you are forced to keep it open and your mouth shut.