Sunday, September 9, 2012

What is Lost and what is Found and the Nature of Time

When you lose something, it always makes you feel bad.  You can never be happy to lose anything, otherwise it wouldn't be lost.  Losing something signifies a loss of value.  This may mean a lost watch, or a lost wallet or it could be smaller items like a lost phone, lost keys or a lost pen.  Whatever it is, you will always feel bad for losing it.  You are bereft by the loss and may go back to search for the lost item that could be found but may look to no avail.  The lost object may have sentimental value.  What does it mean to lose something forever?  Does it mean that we will feel the loss for the rest of our lifetime, or will the feeling wear off after a significant amount of time has passed.  Likely, we will overcome the loss through time.  We will forget but remember that lost thing that was never found but we are now able to cope with the loss.  Why is it so?  Whence the object that was lost at one time was more precious than ourselves or meant more to us than anything.  The lost earring that was passed down for generations that we could never think of being without it or those lost memories.  Are we diminished when we lose something or does the loss affect our lives indefinitely.  Loss can make us depressed and feel worthless.  We seek refuge or consolation in the other things we own.  It may be a trivial loss but the impact can be measured in many ways.  Like losing the ticket on the way to the train to visit a friend may be frustrating but a redeemable loss.  There will be other dates when we can visit our friend but the loss is immediate and sudden.  Thus, we may feel redeemed to visit the friend at some future time, and the previous loss is a trifling matter.  It seems that time ultimately restores our loss and we are able to overcome its privation.  Thus, we can regain our sense of entitlement and ownership.  The lost objects are returned to us not by chance or by an immediate disclosure or recovery but preserving or resisting the loss to feel redeemed.  A lost and found may return our losses to us but does not adequately challenge us to accept time as master.  For something that relies on chance  does not reinstate our free will to overcome a predestined outcome.  For time is a healing agent, a matter of substance and quality that gives us back our dignity and self-worth.  We are vindicated by the passage of time to recover that which was lost by virtue of our free will, that supernatural quality that makes us unique to God.  For the loss applied to material objects such as a loved one, a spouse, a mother, a child, a pet or grandparent is just as hard-felt as any such immaterial object of great importance or value.  But we cope with the loss and are healed by the passage of time and in the spirit of time passing, that makes our material existence possible.  Losing something forever does not mean we cannot regain that which is lost by the virtue divine providence.  Thus we may grieve for a time only that which is lost at the present moment but not indefinitely.