They Had it Right...

In my Modernism class (which also includes a fascinating group called the French Decadents), we're learning about the shift from a purely objective reality to a split between the objective and subjective self (William James). What these two groups, the Modernists and Decadents, also advocated was this belief in absorbing the present moment, which in and of itself will end in a definitive death, separating it from the next moment. The message is basically that each moment can hold a very unique experience of life.

I've done some study in this area in the past, and one of my favorite authors, Virginia Woolf, expanded on this idea through her stream of consciousness novel form. This all said, I have to believe that these people stumbled upon perhaps one of the most important psychological and temporal developments in thinking of our time. Why? Well, what's the good in ignoring what you can get out of the now, only to experience the nostalgia attached to past events that cannot be recovered or future moments that may never materialize?

The reason I have been thinking of this idea so much is because I realize when people go through change or are in transition, it's very easy to get ahead of yourself and, perhaps even more often, look to the past for comfort. But, what I've realized, after doing both of these myself, is that this is not living. There's much to be had within each moment, and who knows how your path can change as a result of living in this moment. So, live as they did...take in the beauty and random observations of the moment...it can't be all that bad.