If this is it, then what was that?

If now is the time, then what came before?

(Part 3 of 3)

So, what happened in this once upon a time? What or who was there? And why does it matter so much that the story must be told, or retold? All will be explained if you’ll kindly give me a listen.

Ah, but first I must conjure the answers to your questions, because they are my questions, too, at the outset. I cannot begin to fathom any of it until I pick up the pen and write, “Once upon a time.” Those are impactful words, an invocation if you will, and they call upon the instincts in my soul that tap into the memories of our culture and draw out the events that brought us here.

The past helps explain the now and offer a path to a better future.

“Now” only happens “once,” upon “this” time, and so it behooves us to understand what “that” was, for next time.

That is a surprise: We are back to my original questions. I honestly did not expect any answers.

If this is it, then what was that?

If now is the time, then what came before?

(Part 2 of 3)

Once upon a time, there … Wait, “once upon a time”? What does that even mean?

OK, this happened once, which suggests a unique happening in the past — and the reference to a time also suggests the past — but how do you get “upon” a time? Time is a figment of our collective imagination; there is no “time,” there is only now, this moment, so how do you get “upon” a time?

(What a time it was, too.)

It probably depends on what “upon” means. In the far distant past, did it mean something somewhat different than it does now? Or was time originally something corporeal and visible that we could literally sit upon?

Those are questions for another time, for I am committed to sit in this chair and muse, not perform research.

And there’s another interesting turn of phrase: By saying I’m sitting “in” this chair, I describe a different chair than if I had written I am sitting “on” this chair. I am suggesting arms on either side of me and padding that I sink “into” when I lay my ample posterior on top of it.

To be continued.

If this is it, then what was that?

If now is the time, then what came before?

(Part 1 of 3)

I have about 75 minutes to prepare for church as I write this Sunday morning, so why would I take time to go through a writing exercise?

“Writers write, so write, Writer.”

It’s as simple as that.

And as complicated.

Write what? Write how? Why write?

That last is easy to answer — because writers write, and I have identified as a writer.

Although … the phrasing “I have identified as” implies that I had a choice, but from the moment they handed Little Me a pencil, I have been writing my hieroglyphics.

And so I am a writer. What can I do about that? I can write. And so I write.

And I repeat: Write what? Anything, at first. And then, eventually, Something. I did not know when I picked up the pen this morning that I would write about writing. But here we are.

And what next?

To be continued.