Nevermind, Part III - Time

In Nevermind Part II, we considered the possibility that everything your "I" puts into each "You" is imagined.  If that is so how can it seem that these "You's" never change? Maybe we imagine an illusion of constancy, even if it is that someone is inconsistent. Perhaps your partner can't seem to remember to do this one little thing, or a coworker never does the things they should. But that's who they are, not just what you imagine, right? Well, like most things, yes and no.

The issues that "Always, Never, Could, Should and Can't" are big ticket items. They may exist in the spectrum of a person's behavior, but to that person those behaviors may not be big ticket. To them, your "I" as their "You" may Always just be stuck on these expectations of their "I".

In dreams, space is relative to time. You can dream an entire lifetime in a few minutes or a nightmare can recur over and over for hours.  (Let me be clear, I'm talking about the waking dream.) Einstein notes this relationship of time to space, but anyone who has ever had to rush getting ready for work is aware of the way time seems to go slower as we go faster.

When we add time to space in the equation of our lives, the implicit memory tends to eliminate Maybe. That's it's job after all, to eliminate not knowing. So it scours it's stronghold of related experiences and eliminates all but the best fit, inserting it so we "know" what our "you"s are like and likely to do. This equation produces the momentum of the motion of our lives as they are filled with the perception of people, places, and things.

When you add time, to your I, You, We, They, and This with Always, Never, Should, Could, and Can't you are basing your present on your past to produce your future, all because your implicit memory wants to save you the trouble of perceiving.

Look at it this way:

 I     -    You     -     We     -    They    -  This

Always  -  Never  -  Should  -  Could  -  Can't

Yeah, you see, these are some of the infamous first and last words in arguments, misunderstandings, and criticism of oneself. When you hear them in any combination, little blue bunnies are propagating like rabbits.

Practice this: Instead of filling in the blank of what some "you"-"never" does, or something "they"-"should" do; just repeat these ten words like a mantra: "I, you, we, they, this; always, never, should, could, can't. Nevermind." Memorize and start repeating this in your mundane moments until you implicitly know the rhythm and the words.

When you notice any of these words coming up in any combination, repeat the Nevermind mantra until your implicit little helper stops offering reasons why and what to do and the rest of its collection. Then, being lucid in your dream of life, see what you don't see....Nevermind.

Time Flies image courtesy Alan Cleaver on flickr.com via creative commons 2.0 license