Time

What an oddball time is!

We cannot see, feel, hear, taste, or smell it. Yet we are constantly in contact with it. It is a integral part of "everything".

Henry David Thoreau described time as well as anyone ever has:

Time is but the stream I go a fishing in.

Albert Einstein also nailed it:

The distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.

As for me, I prefer a quote attributed to a number of folks, including A. Einstein:

Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once.

Mathematically speaking, time is the fourth dimension — (1) right & left, (2) up & down, (3) front & back, and (4) time — of the continuum of which we are a part. And, time is every bit as malleable as three-dimensional objects. But, I'll leave you to read Stephen Hawking's superb little book, "A Brief History of Time", to get your mind around that.

Indeed, the sum of all time — eternity, if you must — is everything that happens between one singularity (the "Big Boom" currently) and the next (the much anticipated "End of Time").

And, just how long is eternity?

Past + Present + Future = 0

It's just an illusion!

For you and I, there always was — and forever will be — only now.

Carpe diem.