Walking History

As is customary, my wife and I enjoy engaging in conversation whilst we drive down the mountain. We live in area that inspires deep thinking and creativity, so this next few lines are the result of such environment.  Additionally my past experiences have been a catalyst for this train of thought.  Lets talk about history and the amount of time we occasionally give to our past.  Sometimes it is more than occasionally and it is our driving force in our minds, delving and re-living in the past.  I know, I can speak from experience, our past experience can sometimes be re-lived by the power of our minds, it is very real to each of us and can be very detrimental to our health devastating to our relationships.  Therefore the following article is an explanation of what my wife and I discussed, and how I view history from a non Western view point.

Before we delve into history and past experiences I will bring up a couple of facts about the dimension we live in, the environment in which we are part of, our planet earth and the location we live, for me Qld Australia.  I have to say deep in my heart I am a Melbourne-ian, (if there is such word), hard core Victorian, just so that you know. Our planet contrary to popular belief, does not have circular orbit around the sun. The position of the earth in relation to the sun, the centre of our galaxy and the universe, at this very moment I am writing, and that you are reading will never be occupied again. Just like the moment you lived reading this article, it will never return nor be experienced ever again.  That is a fact and our path (the earth’s that is) around the sun is elliptical and spiral in form, the sun itself has motion and is in relation to the centre of our galaxy the milky way, and is not a straight line either like all of creation is spiral and elliptical.  Yes, I am a scientist and I do believe in creation, a grand designer made all this as the pattern is obvious and palpable. So everything has motion and direction, all things move and are directed by vectors, forces and acceleration, nothing is really still.

By now you are thinking, yes but I am looking out the window and the rock in the garden is not moving, it was there this morning , yesterday and the day before, actually it has been in the same position since it was put there.  I will disagree, let me ask this question, relative to what is the rock in the same position? To your location or to the universe? Additionally the molecules and atoms that make that rock are in a furious state of flux, vibrating as the rock heats up and cools at different times of the day and seasons.  Therefore my statement has validity, that nothing stands still.  So here is the next question, what does this has to do with history and past experiences, and our minds?  The answer is a lot, and now allow me to begin to explain how our discussion developed into this article you are now reading.

The years 2015 and 2016 have been volatile in my life and my wife’s, we looked back and we realized that our past experiences are as far or as close as we choose them to be in our thoughts, but the reality is the events are further and further way from us each day goes by.  There are two ways of looking at history in particular our past.  In western society we normally say that our past is behind and our future is in front of us.  By now your mind is thinking, yes captain obvious, that is the only way to look at the past, is there another?  Yes, there is, if we have the future in front of us how come we cannot see the coming events? The answer may be because the future is behind you and is overtaking you and as it happens, it is revealed around you, on your left and right above and below like a wave hitting a lighthouse.

You see we cannot see our future and we are forbidden to look into it, we are not to see seers a negative commandment in the Torah, one of the few negative commandments that carries the death penalty.  Before you jump onto the high horse about the death penalty , relax there is no temple and no Sanhedrin, so we are off the hook regarding the death penalty, and that is a whole other issue, and article.  Regardless in our standing of the Torah, we are not physically able to see our future, and therefore the best conclusion is that the future is behind you and it comes at you at a higher rate than your existence, this is concrete thinking as opposed to abstract thinking.

Now history is not behind you, but rather, in front of you, and you can see it is an event that has occurred, that you are able to recreate certain aspects of it, explain in detail, is as if it is a picture that you can describe it in detail. It is laid in front of you and not only that it is also moving, it has overtaken you and moving at a faster rate than your existence. Here is where it got me thinking we are always in a state of motion even when we are siting we are moving.  Life moves on, regardless of how we feel, where we are and what we are doing.  So lets put time in a physical perspective, the planet earth has inertia and spins on its axis as well as it revolves around the sun.

From a physics perspective, we can say that the earth is spinning at a rate that yields an equatorial speed of 465.1 m/s, 1,674.4 km/h, thanks to physics and empirical observation, we safely agree with this figure, its all mathematical.  Now the average person walks at a velocity of 5 km/h.  So if at sunrise we start walking, the demarcation of night and day overtakes us and goes past at 465 m/s.  Now lets put this into perspective that we can understand, in a year there 365 days all at 24hours each, that equates to 8760 hours in a year.  The distance that we can travel in a year assuming non stop walking, as time does not stop, therefore we assume perpetual motion, is 8760 X 5 km/h = 43800 kms.  in contrast the earth is spinning at at 1674 km/h, and that equates to a distance of 14,667,744.0 kms.  Remember we are always moving we never visit the same location twice in any life time.  So any event that occurs in our lives, in a 24 hour period we can say that it is either 120kms away or 40,185.6 kms away,  after 24 hours have lapsed, the choice is yours, how far apart we put ourselves with past events.

Therefore, living in the past the longer the event occurred, the further away it happened and more distance is in between us.  The reason I used walking pace is because in the second temple era everything was measure on a shabbat’s walking distance, or on a regular day’s walking distance.  We find it on the Jewish writings of the Brit Chadashah, in many instances it refers to a shabbats walking distance or a days journey.  All of these were at a steady pace of the average human being, and not a shopping spree of Christmas Day of parents that forgot to buy presents.

So now lets recap for example, an event in the distant past, and this is just a rough estimate, I was born in 1959 that makes me roughly 57 years old, yes an old goat, so that in hours is 499,320 hours alive plus or minus a few hours, ok two thousand hours to be precise.  So about 50,000 hours at 5 km/h gives us 250,000 kms since my birth.  Lets use the speed at which the earth spins and it gets scary how far away I was born, 50,000 x 1674.4 = 83,720,000 kms.  So now put this into a practical example, the most hurtful event that has happened in your life, how far is it from you and can it return to bother you?  Is it logical for us to dwell on the past or should we look forward to what is coming, to what is being revealed in our lives every second, every moment?  How do we now make decisions based on this information, what choices do we make and how do we deal with the outcomes of our choices?  Remember when HaShem forgives, he sets our trespasses as far apart as the East is from the West, now does that that terminology makes sense now?  One more and important question, who is walking in our side?  Who takes the journey alongside with us, this is an important question as this will determine how much are we going to enjoy our time here on earth.  If we are lucky we may endure 700,800 hours to live, which measure are you using to determine your distance travelled and how much are you going to allow the past to affect your now?