THE WAS-OR-WILL-BE

I love that Proust engenders so much conversation, here and on FB. Reading Proust is a practice in itself, for me at least, the narrative gobbler, to slow down to read his complex sentences and to absorb the details. Inasmuch as a reader can "drive," I drive, fast, and kind of recklessly. I have been known to skip around, read the beginning and then the end, and who-knows-what-other methods to get my narrative itch scratched. I am quite sure I miss a lot. And I likely miss some nuanced writing.

M. Proust  does not allow for this so much. If you aren't drinking it in and swimming with the current, to throw up some mixed metaphors, you aren't anywhere near water. (I hope that holds up. I can see myself cringing in the morning.)

Slow down
You move too fast
You got to make the morning last
Just kicking down the cobblestones
Looking for fun and feeling groovy ...

There's likely some philosophy there. I don't yet know enough about Proust or his intellectual mentor/inspiration (and cousin by marriage), Henri Bergson, but from the bit I do know, there is a focus on time and the old mind-body split. Our friends the Buddhists and the Stoics work on this issue as well.

And I have a hunch that paying attention to here-and-now and not so much to the was-or-will-be might improve one's qualities of mind and life.

Here's a random link to a new song from the guy from the Fleet Foxes.