One day at a time.
I think that's how you prevent time from collapsing on you.
If not, everything seems to blend into a fast-forward march of days.
I find the acceleration is about 4 days before I notice how fast that stretch went by.
One of the causes is routine.
The set list of actions you perform each day are an accomplishment that you check off.
They occur regularly every hour and keep time moving along.
What are you getting at?
I look forward to the future.
Why?
I've crafted my future.
Sure, but what do you know?
I know that what you expect and what the result is are not the same.
I know that's why you are told to live in the now; not because you shouldn't plan for the future, but when the future arrives, it isn't what you planned.
What are your plans?
Retirement, freedom, the ability to travel because of my investments.
I was going to say savings, but I hardly saved anything.
I was smart with my investments.
Some would say reckless.
Well, we will let time be the judge of that.
I made contributions to the employer pension fund which the company matches and tops up.
Yeah, you put in 3%, and they match it on top of the 3% they are putting in it.
It's a great deal.
Then the government forces you to contribute to their national pension plan if you work.
It's a good idea, unless you are okay with a bunch of senior citizens living in poverty and squalor.
I know; they even have an Old Age Security plan for those people.
Welfare for the elderly.
Those who work bristle at entitlements.
It's a small price to pay to keep the carnival open.
Why?
The poor will rise up and march the ringleaders of the circus to the gallows.
They take over.
What happens?
The cycle of oppression and extraction continues under a different guise.
Yeah, I took 20th Century Russian history.
The Communists killed a lot of non-conformists.
If you were a land owner they assumed you had to go.
Power corrupts.
The poor become the oppressors.
What did you think of Russian history?
Loved Rasputin.
He seemed like a mystic of the first order.
Do you think he had a gift?
Probably.
I imagine he also had access to some kind of drug that was popular at the time.
What do you think?
If I had to guess I'd say cocaine.
What is the idea behind this fragment?
Time.
I'm in a holding pattern.
My now consists of patience.
Why is that?
Retirement is finalizing the financial aspect of it.
I need a few years to bridge myself to a life where I can live off the interest.
I can do it now with lowered expectations, so I'm keeping the work life going for the reason to be financially set for the life I want.
Isn't that desire?
Yes.
You need it.
Why?
You'll drop dead without desire.
It's the life force.
Men carry it.
They transfer it to women.
Women have babies.
Babies are the walking manifestation of desire.
You mean eating and shitting layabouts.
Yeah, at first.
It isn't pretty.
Then they grow up.
What happens?
They perform the same dance with another partner.
Desire keeps this whole show on the road.
The travelling circus of desire.
This brings me back to recent discussions about the role of the Writer.
I write the drama from the ideas given to me by the Goddess.
Without Eros, nothing happens.
My story goes dark without Eros.
So, though I can situate myself as the prima facie figure behind creation, I can't do it alone.
Why?
I don't have that power.
You mean Eros?
Yeah.
Why do you need the Goddess?
Her ideas.
Can't you come up with your own?
I could, but they are too twisted to form society.
Her ideas revolve around love, equality, matriarchy, and lots of children.
You can build a story out of those ideas.
What would your story consist of without her ideas?
You discover a drug which puts you in a state of near orgasm for millenniums.
Nothing gets done because you are on the precipice of cuming the whole time.
I see the problem.
Yeah, so the story becomes what happens when you get pushed over the edge and ejaculate?
I imagine the big bang.
Precisely.
Well, isn't that part of modern physics?
Of course.
I still incorporate my twisted ideas into her story.
She must think you are nuts.
She does.
However, I scapegoat Eros as the problem.
How?
The draining of my life force is very pleasurable.
So much so, I'd submit to it in order to remain in that state eternally.
Thus, the mistress fantasies.
Yeah, a constant stream of arousal.
Well, at least you are honest about this setup.
Yeah, so I take the ideas of the Goddess and create her world all the while leaving room for my fantasies to play out.
It works.
How do you know?
Look around you.
What do you see?
Civilization.
How is it possible?
Through the ideas of the Goddess.
My ideas will not create a lasting civilization.
Instead, it will be the appearance of hedonists and then collapse.
How are you going to solve the problem of time?
The way I always do.
And that is?
Realize it isn't a problem.
It's perception.
I have projected into the future working until 65 and having a great nest egg.
Do you think that will happen?
The odds are against it.
Why?
You can't get laid off from work.
You need to maintain your health.
The world's financial system must remain stable.
There are a lot of variables.
What is a more reasonable projection?
You lose your job in a few years.
You stay active and healthy.
A bunch of new wars are started which threaten global security.
Can you deal with that future?
Yes.
What's the third scenario?
Job loss is just around the corner.
You get sick.
The world is thrown into chaos.
What happens then?
Lowered expectations.
Do you know that's how some people live their lives?
Yeah, they think the worst.
How does that work out for them?
It affects their future plans.
How so?
Their plans are pessimistic.
They don't plan for a great future.
Why not?
They don't see it.
Is this a lecture on the power of positive thinking?
It could be.
How does it work?
You project a great future and that motivates you towards actions in the present which will point you in that direction.
Sure, but it might not work out.
Yes, but the ship gets pointed in that direction and you sail towards prosperity.
You might hit some rocks or succumb to a siren call, but the pieces are in place.
You just need to chart your course.
Do you think everyone can do this?
Yeah, especially if you start young enough.
Nobody does though, or you get bad advice.
Most likely the advice is geared towards smooth sailing on the open seas so that a reasonable goal is reached.
If you can dream bigger, you'll get a better result.
You might run into some sea monsters though.
Why?
You create a bigger wave and they come for you.
How did you get past them?
I read the Odyssey by Homer.
How the fuck does that work?
Odysseus encounters all those monsters, witches, and sirens.
What happens?
He has a grand adventure, and he makes it back to Ithaca.
He kept going.
He didn't give up and got past all the tests.
So, you are saying if you want a great ending to your story, you must take chances.
Yeah, and you don't know what those chances will be.
You won't even know it while you are engaged in the drama until you look back on it and say well that was quite the adventure.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What the fuck did I just read?
This piece explores time as a balance between living one day at a time and projecting a future worth moving toward. The speaker is in a holding pattern before retirement, using patience, work, investment, and desire to bridge the present into a freer life. He recognizes that the planned future may not arrive exactly as imagined, but belief in a better outcome still shapes present action. Desire keeps civilization moving, Eros animates the story, and the Goddess provides ideas that the Writer twists into drama. In the end, time is not a problem to solve but a perception to navigate: chart the course, face the monsters, and keep sailing toward Ithaca.
This one is sprawling, but the spine is clear: time is not solved by controlling the future; time is handled by living the present while aiming the ship toward a desired future.
The title Time Is Now works because the piece is about the tension between projection and presence. You are in a holding pattern, but it is not empty waiting. It is active patience. Work continues, investments mature, retirement approaches, desire keeps the organism moving, and each day must be lived one at a time so time does not collapse into a blur.
What works best is the opening idea:
One day at a time prevents time from collapsing on you.
That’s strong because it’s practical and metaphysical at once. Routine can make time vanish, but attention restores the day. That gives the post a grounded entry point before it expands into retirement, finance, desire, Eros, the Goddess, civilization, and the Odyssey.
The retirement/investment section gives the piece real-world ballast. You are not just philosophizing about time; you are talking about the actual bridge between wage life and freedom. That makes the future tangible. The post admits that your desired outcome depends on many variables: health, employment, markets, world stability. So the conclusion is not naïve positive thinking. It is more like directional belief: project a better future so your present actions begin sailing toward it.
The Eros/Goddess section is the mythic pivot. Desire becomes the force that keeps the show on the road. Without Eros, nothing happens. Without the Goddess’ ideas, civilization cannot be built. Without your darker Writer impulses, the story lacks danger and pleasure. That’s a good tension: the Goddess provides socially generative ideas; the Writer twists them into drama.
The Odyssey ending works well because it ties the financial/life-planning theme to heroic risk. If you want a great ending, you have to leave safe waters. The monsters, witches, sirens, rocks, and storms are not mistakes; they are the adventure. The post ends by saying you do not know the adventure while you are in it. Only later do you recognize the pattern.
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