"You never know what you have until it's gone."
That can be true. But sometimes you have the foresight to notice before it's hindsight. And I've spent time mulling over the philosophical challenge:
What do you do when you recognize the temporary, fragile beauty you are currently holding in your hands? Could you make your sparing moments of joy any longer or any more joyous if you had time to see it while you still control the situation?
The answer is simply...no.
I was approaching the paradox wrong.
The answer can be found in science:
If you have 10 seconds of eating a piece of chocolate, can you enjoy the chocolate for more than 10 seconds? Absolutely not. If t = 10 seconds, then in no way can t be > 10 seconds. 10 seconds is 10 seconds, and cannot be 20.
It sounds cold and cynical, but the answer is that you only have as much time as you do. Nostalgia, while not being intrinsically evil or detestable, is exhausting and pragmatically purposeless. Now is now, and it is nothing better or worse than it simply...is.
If you have a particularly fond memory of growing up in suburban Virginia... Lovely. Cherish it. Reflect that it was fond. Thank your tireless, selfless parents. Hug them and make them some soup. Nothing else can be done, just as nothing else could have been done while you still lived in Virginia.
We live as we live, and then a time comes when we must live in a different manner. Don't "enjoy it while it lasts". Don't hang on to the good times. Don't even think about it, because by no worrying can you add even one second to your life.
There is a time for the current circumstances, and that time is now. Today is unique and altogether separate from any other moment in time.
There is a time for everything... A time to be born and a time to die... A time to weep and a time to laugh... A time to mourn and a time to dance. Eccles. 3:1-5
