I’m currently watching the 7th game of the 1952 World Series between the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers.  I was seven years old when this game was played and would not “discover” baseball until a decade later when Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris were caught up in a home run chase…without the aid of any pharmacology!  Mantle was a 20 year old rookie in 1952 and I was delighted to watch him hit a home run.  But now there is no “live” baseball.

 But that was then, this is now!  Sure the wonderful game has changed drastically as has the whole of life.  The were no over-paid players in 1952, no  tyrannical and arrogant team-owners, and no collective bargaining strife that occurs from time to time.  But there is still that magical “crack of the bat,’ the pop ot cow-hide smacking the gloves, the smell of pop-corn and the cry from the venders in the stands crying out, “Get your pop corn, get your peanuts,” and the thrill of “my team” winning the “ole ballgame.”

But I reiterate, “That was then, this is now.”  Life has changed dramatically and fundamentally.  Today Covid 19 has shaken us to our core, our welfare is deeply related to the whims and fancies of the stock market, microwave ovens are a common place, rotary dial phones have been buried in the dustbin of history, and we have an American President who publicly needed to reassure about the size of his penis.  It is so tempting to despair, particularly with the virus but also the moral and spiritual bankruptcy of our political leaders.  I’m’ not for sure  why I still take delight in life, still having nagging memories of “the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to.”  My childhood insecurity, hyper self-consciousness, and vulnerability still whisper in my ears daily and persistently.  I guess wisdom does comes with age, allowing me to recognize my continued “denial system” about reality, no longer allowing this “denial system” to offer the solace of certainty with its accompanying arrogance.

Today, I am just here…as in “here.”  It is only this “here-ness,” this present moment which you and I share even as you read this, is the only moment.  “Past” and “future” do exists as a necessary contrivance, but it is only the present moment that we have, described as Eckhart Tolle as, “The Power of Now.”