45, 46

45. If the Universe exists on an infinite time scale; with an infinite amount of time preceding this moment and an infinite amount anteceding it; how can you rationally explain your existence on this Earth? On an infinite time scale your finite lifespan collapses to nothing. Therefore, your time on this Earth should have already elapsed, and yet here you are. How is this possible?

46. Each moment in time is like a link in a chain. The arc that the chain makes when it hangs in the presence of gravity is known, by mathematicians, as the catenary curve. This is the arc of least tension. In Riemann for Anti-Dummies Part 10 we are told; 

The lowest point on the chain is a singularity, as it is the one place where the force doesn't change, regardless of whether the length of the chain is increased or decreased on either side of it. Paradoxically, this point supports no chain, while supporting all the chain.

Clearly our perception of the present moment, and of the arrow of time itself, is defined by some gravitational force located outside of 3-dimensional space. Terrence Mckenna, almost jokingly, called this force the Strange Attractor; after the Lorentzian attractors. The present moment, according to my logic, is the one place where the tension remains the same, across the entire timeline. In response to the movements - or requirements - of the present, the past and future can shift dramatically. This means that the present moment is the only thing that is real. It is a singularity from which there is, necessarily, no escape. The present moment supports all of time; both past and future, and is supported by them in turn - by the law of cause and effect.

It is both profound and redundant to say that if the present moment ceased to be, the past and future would vanish also. This is because, in a sense the present is all that exists. It is a moment of becoming that contains all the information necessary with which to formulate the events of the entire timeline. As William Blake wrote in his poem Auguries of Innocence, all of time is contained in the present moment;

To see a world in a grain of sand,

And a heaven in a wild flower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,

And eternity in an hour.

What is true of the catenary is also true of the keystone, the cardinal block in an arch that is responsible for supporting the entire archway. The keystone is the present moment, and it has all of the power of the universe; both past and future, directed towards it. This, I believe, to be the symbolic importance of the keystone, as it is only in the present that we are capable of observing and manipulating this energy. While the archway may appear to be the reverse of the catenary, fundamentally they are the same, as both forms are held in place by the force of gravity, and both contain a singularity.

Theoretical physicists tell us that time is an illusion and that our experience of it must be largely subjective. Therefore, time and the present moment is a product of man and his psyche. This means that if you and your conscious perception of the world cease to exist, so does the bonds that hold all of history in careful balance. Seeing as how you are an integral part of the universe, this explains how you can still manage to exist in a universe that is infinite in duration.

I turn to eternity, and whisper the name Mikey Stone.