“The Ephemeral Moment”

“No one wanted anything to happen or change. They would have preferred that flawless ever-presence to hang in suspension, like a stilled blown bubble, neither moving nor expanding, diminishing nor warping. It would have been sublime for the sun to continue holding its aureole over Artus’ head, for the black boxes of the hopscotch grid to stay stenciled on the floor planks, for the warm breeze to ceaselessly send the spicy fragrance of the hyacinth into the room. But to all who paid attention to the lessons regularly proffered by life, a great truth peeked out shyly from behind this shared feeling: no matter how pleasant or satisfying an experience of the world might be, it cannot ever last; efforts to make it last fly in the face of the very nature of normal life: constant change. A sweet musical note gains its sweetness from its ephemerality and the silence preceding and succeeding it. Prolongation of the note would only ruin its appeal. The gathered bohemians could only savor those few moments and then allow them to recede, as an ocean wave dissolves into the sand and pulls back into the sea.”