A-C-T

22 May 1905 (65)
"Dawn. A salmon fog floats through the city, carried on the breath of the river."
This is a world of changed plans because time stops and starts in fits. At the end of the chapter, the narrator asks a series of questions, which you should try to answer:Who would fare better in this world of fitful time?Those who have seen the future and live only one life?Or those who have not seen the future and wait to live life?Or those who deny the future and live two lives?

The future is such a precious thing that people will spend their entire lives working to ensure great success and splendor in the next part of their life. However, man often spends his entire life planning and altering his future to perfection that he never actually experiences what lies ahead. The future is the one thing that is a complete mystery to the human knowledge. Ma may have some clue of where he stands ten years from now, but the future is the future and we will not know what it entails until we get there. In this world of fitful time, as Lightman describes in Einstein’s dream, "time flow not evenly but fitfully and, as consequence, people receive fitful glimpses of their future"(66). Here some people know their future and live in a world of "guaranteed success"(67) and do not bother continuing their present when they know the future. There are also people who do not know their future and live in a world of "inactive suspense"(67). They wait in their beds and don't focus on their present life because some things might not be important in terms of the future. And finally, Lightman describes a group of people who know their future but believe that "the future can be changed"(68). All of the people described rely so heavily on the future and take few risks, if any. They can not handle the mystery of life and now have tarnished their present lives because of their eagerness to "know".

The lives or absence of lives, that these people chose to live are all, in my opinion, no way of living. However, I think the people who deny the future and live two lives would fare better in the fitful world. Lightman described the other two groups of people as ones who do not take any risks because "those who have seen the future do not need to take risks, and those who have not seen the future wait for their vision without taking risks"(67). The present world has been deserted because they care so much about the occurrences in the future. The group who live two lives while they think they can change their unfavorable future, act on the present. Although their future is never changed, they never neglected the present. The only way to reach your future is to complete the present, but if you take no risks you will never live.

Word count: 405