Once something has happened in a person’s life, we can, in some sense, say it is known. But is it really? Can one tally up all the causes and conditions that accumulated and converged to make an event, an incident, happen? Similarly, can one extrapolate into the future and foresee the related impacts of what is thought known? Yet, humans persist to believe in knowing, and to act upon those beliefs. Thus, passes what is taken for knowledge.
Most people can remember “first times.” Memory being what it is, however, the totality of all “first times” is impossible to remember. Take the first time a parent sees an offspring smile. How can this incident be discerned from all the other smiles that come after? Maybe I’m wrong. I do remember my first passionate, adolescent kiss – a kiss so different from any I had engage before from parents and relatives that it staggered me and left me aching for more. I wonder how many readers remember their first kisses, who the person was on the other end …
Most people can remember “first times.” Memory being what it is, however, the totality of all “first times” is impossible to remember. Take the first time a parent sees an offspring smile. How can this incident be discerned from all the other smiles that come after? Maybe I’m wrong. I do remember my first passionate, adolescent kiss – a kiss so different from any I had engage before from parents and relatives that it staggered me and left me aching for more. I wonder how many readers remember their first kisses, who the person was on the other end …