Pendulum Moves

The arc is long. The pace slow. It moves. Inexorably it inches forward to its apogee. Then moments of rest and the return trip begins. Slow. Slow. Very slow. Tempo gathers in journey but slows as the opposite nadir nears. Another rest. Stasis for a mere moment. Then motion again in reverse for another round trip.


So it goes. The pendulum swings through its arc. Certain. A tempo. Over and over again.


Since the beginning of time. until time does not exist. Repeat again and again.


Eons have passed. Babies born. Peoples gather in tribes and settle in daily routines – growing food, hunting food, making fabric, cooking meals, finding shelter, surviving weather extremes. Wondering about the unseen. Telling stories that build understanding of the unknown. They bend their heads in silence. They think of the unknown. Mumble sounds to the unknown.


They worship. Then and now. The arc is followed. Day in and day out. Millenia in and millenia out.

Kings are invented. Queens, too. And princes and special people. People with power. Might. Influence. Authority. The people obey. Until they don’t. They don’t when they are not pleased with the temper of rules enforced. Change occurs. New kings are named. Or tyrants. Or chieftans.


Food is grown. Eaten. Digested and waste ejected. The cycle of sustenance. Life. Health. Death. Birth. Cycles lived over and over again only different people always evolving and emerging.


The sweep of time is witnessed by history. Some of it is recorded. Remembered. lessons learned. New things attempted. To be different. To be better.


Bits and pieces of life, of time, of place.


The pace is slow. Millions of years. Billions, too.


The planet was born. It was inhabited. Its people lived upon it and experienced life. More time. More people. Born and died. Cycles evermore. Changes with each cycle, changes so small they are not noticed.


Will it stop? Ever? When?


And how?

And with what quality life?


February 12, 2020