Past; Present; Future

“Sir! How long is the present?”

Didn’t take Mack too long to get back to his old sleep-invading habits to ask clattertrap; leopards cannot change their spots! Of course, I was indeed thinking about past-present-future stuff, but it was not earth-shattering enough for Mack to jump into my sleep.

“As long as YOU are present. And I prefer that you be absent!”

”Absinthe makes the heart grow fodder, Sir. Not into that!”

“(Sighhh)”

“Seriously, Sir. If what I just said is past, and what I will say in two minutes time is the future, how long is the present?”

“I would say, technically … a nanosecond.”

“A who??”

“A nanosecond. If not shorter.”

“What on earth is THAT?”

“it’s a unit of time equal to one billionth of a second.”

“Dey have dat??”

“Indeed they do, Sir. It’s used in calculating processor speeds in computing, as well as in finance and physics.”

“So how come you using the term here?”

“Because it also means ‘a very brief moment,’ Sir.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“Right. And for our present purpose, every moment of our awareness is counted as the ‘present.’“

“Oooohhh!”

“And everything before that is ‘past’, and everything that will be is ‘future.’”

“Hmmmm!!”

“So our lives will be the sum of gazillions of ‘presents!’”

“Waayyyy!!! I could be Santa Claus!!!”

“(Groannnn)”