Prue and I had just come out from a lecture about The Concept of Time and Eternity when she said, ‘Nothing lasts forever but the moment.’
‘A fascinating idea to pacify the yearnings of the soul! You think you can hold on to something for as long as you please, you believe you have control and you try desperately to manipulate time and to hold it hostage in your power until you willingly decide to let go. But the minute you feel that moment you know that something inside you will also die forever.’
‘Or it will live forever. We are here, right now, together.’
‘Nothing lasts forever and nothing lasts for more than that moment when it comes to life. Was that a smile, was it a touch, a word, a sigh? What’s the use? I know you want to feel it too and you try as much as I do to keep those moments alive. These are the moments our lives are made of and they are incomplete and blurred. It even seems hard at times to enjoy the moment for the pain of knowing that it will soon vanish into the dust of memories.’
‘What a miserable thought,’ Prue sighed. ‘Is that it? Is that all life gives for consolation; memories? And what if we lose sight of each other?’
‘I carry a heavy, pleasant burden of memories. These memories include memories of us and nothing in the world could make me want to forget them. There is a kind of sweetness in the brevity of time. We are all meant to leave one day. Absence is not a fatality.’
‘So, we can never be free, neither in moments of total pleasure nor beyond.’