Days of Future Passed

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Another year's turn and already the New Year is now just This Year. The future passes and the past accumulates. The arbitrariness of the New Year's celebrations themselves mirrors those of sundry religious festivals - including Christmas itself - despite its less spiritual nature and history: what marks the start of a New Year? Depends where you are of course, but logically the year's turn occurs at the Winter Solstice, already long gone by the time we link hands, sing in Scots' dialect and fall over drunk 'till morning comes [other modes of celebration are of course available]. It also depends on your global location as to how significant this time of the year is: the experience of the annual changeover is very different in Northern Europe, where most of these traditions come from, than it is in say sub-Saharan Africa or Polynesia.

But continuing the theme of the last two day's posts, it seems fitting to close out this rhetorically threefold digression with a reflection on the future itself and its very evanescent, shall we say, essence. [I once used the word essence in a tutorial at college without really regarding its true import. My tutor packed me off to Birmingham Central Library for a fortnight to write him an essay on the concept of essence. Needless to say, I failed, and never mentioned the 'e' word again in his presence. A lesson learned: know your audience, and come prepared]. There we are again: the past caught up in the present when talking about the future, which, in the case of this sentence, is already the past. Pictured are two of my pocket watches [mentioned blog posts passim], both wound and adjusted first thing this morning, the one obviously lagging behind the other. Does this discrepancy in time-telling matter? In human terms, not a jot. Tomorrow, I'll go through the same ritual of winding and setting them. Marking time is relative, after all... No prizes but, who can tell me the references that the last three posts are titled from and why they are oddly but significantly ordered?

Comments

  1. Phil.2 January 2026 at 21:13

    Your next post should be entitled; "The Magnificent Moodies" as you are working in reverse release date chronological order.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Phil.2 January 2026 at 21:16

    I would also add:
    At its core, essence refers to the fundamental nature or intrinsic quality of a thing—the set of attributes that make an entity what it is. It is the indispensable quality that, if removed, would cause the object or concept to cease being itself.

    In classical philosophy, particularly in the works of Aristotle, essence (ousia) is distinguished from "accidents." Accidents are traits that can change—such as a chair being painted red or blue—without altering the object's fundamental identity as a chair. The essence, however, is the specific "chair-ness" itself: the structural intent to be sat upon.

    The concept also plays a pivotal role in Existentialism, most famously in Jean-Paul Sartre’s dictum, "existence precedes essence." This suggests that unlike a tool (designed with a specific purpose or essence before it is physically built), humans exist first and then define their own essence through their choices and actions.

    In more tangible terms, essence implies concentration. In perfumery or cooking, an essence is a potent extract that holds the defining flavour or scent of the source material. Metaphorically, when we ask for the "essence of an argument," we are stripping away the rhetorical flourish to find the central, unchangeable truth. Ultimately, essence is the "what-ness" of reality—the defining soul of matter and meaning.

    Took me less than 30 seconds.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Phil.2 January 2026 at 21:19

    Oh - and a Very Happy & Peaceful New Year to you all over there Kel. I hope that everything is going well in this your 71st, or is it 72nd year. I can never remember, although I should. Love to Jane & ATB, Phil.

    ReplyDelete
  4. sideways2 January 2026 at 21:25

    Yay - debate! - thanks for reading my little provocations, our kid - it's nice nice to get some intellectual traffic going, despite the use of Google/AI in your second comment! What is the essence of the moment- the punctum that is the fulcrum between the present and the past? Can it exist outside of the quantum realm, or is it just an an unknowable philosophical abstract? [Took me less than ten seconds to answer, unaided ;)0]

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. sideways2 January 2026 at 21:28

      My seventy-second year: sounds weird, don't it? Still feel exactly the same as I always did, but experience and self-education makes all the difference: getting old isn't all bad, apart from the sense of mortality and knowing how much more is out there to know...

      Delete
    2. sideways2 January 2026 at 21:30

      All the very best to you and Wend & Jack. Love from us all up here in the hills...

      Delete
  5. Phil.2 January 2026 at 22:21

    Kel,
    I just said; "Essence in 250 words" Incredible. If I had asked for a 10,000 word thesis I'm sure it would have done that also. I tend to use Gemini all the time now rather than just Googling stuff.
    I like the watches BTW. The black one is particularly fine. I have an old Services pocket watch with a black dial and fluorescent numerals. Looks fantastic and is in beautiful cosmetic condition, but keeps stopping. I'll have to get it attended to someday. I will email you a pic. Phil.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. sideways3 January 2026 at 07:59

      Look forward to seeing the watch, Phil - I've got a second Waltham service watch that needs looking at too... they're lovely pieces of engineering!

      Delete

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