Into Unknowing

blurred-future
By Mark Rowan

running
jumping
crawling
slip slidin’

you know
(surely)
the nearer your
destination

the more
you’re slip
slidin’ away
____________

And what we call the future, what we slide into by default or by intention is something of an imaginative blurr. Let us at the very least be aware of ourself and our extended ‘self’, the immediate world around us as we run, walk and slip slide into that space of unknowing.

Are you not always on the move, even when sitting still? Still does not equal stasis.

Hat tip to Simon & Garfunkel.

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2 thoughts on “Into Unknowing”

  1. Hi Rev. Master Mugo—I Googled the song because I couldn’t remember its tune, and found the following website where Paul Simon’s 1977 recording of Slip Slidin’ Away can be found along with the text below the link, that uses the word koan to describe the song’s three vignettes of missed opportunity. I like that the writer of this commentary (whose name I could not find) interprets the wording of Paul Simon’s last verse, “God makes his plan” and “the information’s unavailable to the mortal man” as a reflection of the common belief that the details of our lives are determined by a fate that is arranged by God—but just that “it can seem” that way.

    https://www.songfacts.com/facts/paul-simon/slip-slidin-away

    “‘The nearer your destination, the more you’re slip sliding away.’
    Paul Simon gave us this koan in this story about three different people who retreat from their passions when confronted with the vagaries of life. The song shows how we can all watch our dreams pass us by and end up like the absentee father in the third verse, kissing his son as he sleeps and then heading back home. It can seem like we are fated to do so, as ‘God makes his plan’ and ‘the information’s unavailable to the mortal man’.”

    1. Very dear Gyojin. Thank you so much for taking a look and adding this comment. It fills out the picture of the actual song considerably.

      It is SO good to know you are reading Jade. It’s been 17 years I’ve been writing and while I have my ‘down’ moments whether that’s due to lack of inspiration, lack of time or just life rising up with more important things to focus on – I do come back here to ponder. You were formative in my early years, something you might not know. Present, bright, patient in the face of what I perceived as not easy times.

      I hope you and yours are going along ok and there hasn’t been too much slip slidin’. Missed opportunities…health etc. etc.

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