Sometimes I avoid the question. Sometimes I am paralyzed or numbed by it. As every attempt to answer falls short, the question deepens, changes forms, or perhaps becomes the fuel for sadness, cynicism or courage. What I have noticed about these attempts to answer the question is that they all try to explain events in terms of what has preceded them. This failure of history is based on a certain understanding of Time.
Time moves forward.
The past causes the present. The present causes the future. When we want to know why something is the way it is, we look to the past that formed it. And through an historical consciousness, we see present circumstances as forming our future. Since this strategy has so often proved unsuccessful in explaining events to me, I am challenged to re-examine the foundation on which that strategy is based, namely our concept of Time.