The past isn't going anywhere

Well, the title might be a misnomer depending on what exactly time is...besides, everyone knows that individual pasts tend to get extinguished with the passing of the person to whom they hold particular meaning, but I digress - this is not necessarily a post about the metaphysics of time ...or is it?

Yesterday, I walked by three old timers sitting, huddled together, drinking cheap liquor, laughing maniacally, sometimes looking stoic, other times forlorn, but the constant was that they kept on talking. I do not know what they were talking about - it wasn't relevant. What was relevant was the ideas they triggered in my mind. I imagined them, weary of a life spent dreaming and hoping, living and learning, and now in their "golden years" there's nothing to do but sit idly, drinking and discussing the philosophies that have influenced their nuances. I imagined they, fuelled by the headiness of alcohol, looked to the past and reflected on how things may have been different.

As I thought those thoughts, I wanted to go over to them. To proclaim, "Old timers, the past didn't go anywhere, you are all still here. Teach me your knowledge; show me all you have learnt; remind me of the mistakes I will forget! Let me drink with y'all, discussing humans and life, and together we shall drown ourselves in this moment."

But, I couldn't. My time has not yet come. There is still more to do, mistakes to be made and hopes dreamt. To sit in a circle with the old folks requires a life time of experiences. My life has only just begun - well, relatively speaking.

Then again, they could have been old fools.