Einstein's Dreams, 14 APRIL 1905.
Suppose time is a circle, bending back on itself. The world repeats itself, precisely, endlessly. For the most part, people do not know they will live their lives over. Traders do not know that they will make the same bargain again and again. Politicians do not know that they will shout from the same lectern an infinite number of times in the cycles of time.
Some few people in every town, in their dreams, are vaguely aware that all has occurred in the past. These are the people with unhappy lives, and they sense that their misjudgments and wrong deeds and bad luck have all taken place in the previous loop of time.
In the dead of night these cursed citizens wrestle with their bedsheets, unable to rest, stricken with the knowledge that they cannot change a single action, a single gesture. Their mistakes will be repeated precisely in this life as in the life before. And it is these double unfortunates who give the only sign that time is a circle. For in each town, late at night, the vacant streets and balconies fill up with their moans." From "Einstein's Dreams" a novel by Alan Lightman.
Time does not repeat itself, but what about history?
"This time, it's different" says Seth Godin. "History goes in cycles, over and over, to the point where it's sort of boring. One of the cycles is the way governments and long-lived organizations unite to fight change. I'm in the middle of Seize the Daylight : The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time."
..."Just something to think about the next time an emergency takes over our culture... something that threatens the status quo that must be vanquished before it ends in disaster."
I sometimes think in terms of scarcity instead of abundance. I become filled with fear over losing what I have or not getting what I want - do you? I need to lighten up. I need to take time to practice, time to experiment - time to learn.
I was reading a post, "Throw More Pots" on Crossroads Dispatches by Evelyn Rodriguez about doing things over and over to create something new. I am not the best learner and usually repeat my mistakes without learning much because of my biases; this idea of scarcity gets in the way of learning, which in turn limits creativity and the idea of abundance. How do we overcome our fears, our biases, so we can grow and learn? I've read a lot on that subject too; but that is for another post.
