The Past And Future Are Alive By Rick Doble

  The Past & Future Are Alive  

Text except as noted is by Rick Doble. All images are from commons.wikimedia.org unless otherwise noted.

I do not believe in any legacy. 

 The past is dead and gone. 

 N. R. Narayana Murthy 

 For me, the past is dead. 

 Can't go back. 

 Jonathan Ames 

 Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be) 

 The future's not ours to see 

 Que sera, sera 

 From Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much, 1956 

 Don't tell me the past is dead 

 and the future is not ours to see: 

 "The Story of a Word" from The Story of Mankind by Henrik Van Loon.

The Latin word mater which comes from the Sanskrit (above) is the source of the words mother and matter in English. http://wordinfo.info/unit/1261 

Every word you speak and every letter of the alphabet, is thousands of years old. The origins of many Western languages are perhaps 10,000 years old with Indo-European roots. Without the historical development of words that we use everyday, we would be unable to think and communicate as we do now. In addition without your learning your own language in the past when you were young, you would not be able to read or understand this writing you are reading at this moment So the past is quite alive -- we live it everyday.

 Without the past 

 the present 
 cannot be understood 

 and has no meaning 

The French animated silent film of 1902, A Trip to the Moon, foreshadowed the actual moon missions 70 years later, even though such a journey was considered pure fantasy when the movie was made. For example, space capsules used in the actual moon missions by the USA look almost exactly like the capsules in the French animated film (see above and next). This cannot be coincidence -- and it is through such 'work of the imagination'  (my phrase) that the dreams of the past influences the accomplishments of the future.

 Without the future 

 the present 
 has no purpose 

Apollo 17 space capsule above the moon in 1972.

Four space probes, Pioneer 10 & 11 and Voyager 1 & 2 launched in the 1970s, are now at or past the edge of our solar system. It will be the task of future generations to send humans to explore our planets and eventually other stars and beyond.

Take Heed You Proud Men Of Action

 Take Heed Men Of Action 

A quote of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Text by Rick Doble. All images from commons.wikimedia.org 

 Mark this well, 

 you proud men of action! 

 You are, after all, 

 nothing 

 but 

 unconscious instruments 

 of the men 

 of thought. 

 Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel 

The Past Is Never Dead -- Quote from Faulkner

 The Past Is Never Dead 

All images are from commons.wikimedia.org unless otherwise noted. Design & editing by Rick Doble.

  "The past   

This bone flute, discovered in a Paleolithic cave in Germany,
is about 30 thousand years old,
and is among the oldest known musical instruments ever found. 

  is never dead.  

Flute player on ancient Greek pottery.

  It's not even  

The Flute Player, by Dirck van Baburenm, 1620.

  past."  

Herbie Mann playing a modern day flute.

William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun, 1951

The More Things Change By Rick Doble

 THE MORE THINGS CHANGE 

Editing, design & research by Rick Doble.
All images are from commons.wikimedia.org unless otherwise noted.

"Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose."
Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr

 The more 

 things change  

 The more 

 they stay the same 

Janus, Roman God of January by Rick Doble

 Janus 

 the Roman two-headed god 

 of cold January 

 looks both ways 

 to the past 

 and to the future 

 the year beginning and ending 

Patterns of frost on a window.

 He is the god 

 of doors 

 gateways 

 passages and 

 transitions 

 dead trees with the promise of leaves 

 He stares into the distance 

 at the still cold point 

 of the sun's travel 

A depiction of another ancient god associated with the passage of time, the winged primordial Greek god Chronos who was the god of time, illustrating the flight of time or that time flies. "The triumphs of Petrarch. The triumph of time; Chronos as a winged figure with two crutches riding on a cart drawn by two stags to right; accompanied by figures ordered according to their age, from young children at right to an old man at left; in right background two children with a walking-frame; from a series of six engravings. c.1539 Engraving." British Museum 

"Chronos [ED: the ancient Greek god of time] as a winged figure
with two crutches riding on a cart" an hour glass at his feet
(detail from the above engraving).

Text, editing, research & design by Rick Doble. All images are from commons.wikimedia.org unless otherwise noted.