Where are you?

Steve: Hello, are you there?

Steph: No, I’m here. How about you? Are you there?

Steve: No, I’m here, too.

Steph: Well, someone has to be there. We can’t both be here, because that would mean both of us are at the same place at the same time – and clearly we are not. Why can’t your here be there and my here still be here?

Steve: Because my here is not there, it’s here. If I was there I wouldn’t be here. But, I am here so it has to be here. Why can’t your here be there?

Steph: Because I’m still here, too. So, I can’t be there either.

Steve: What about if I combined my here with your here? Then we could both be here at the same time – we could have a sort of shared super here.

Steph: But, how would you get here to join your here with mine?

Steve: I wasn’t going to. I thought you could come here.

Steph: Okay. But if I leave here what will become of my here? What should I call it, what will it be?

Steve: Well, we could call it past here, somewhere else, previous here or not here.

Steph: No, those suggestions don’t sound too good to me. Somewhere else is not bad, but… I don’t know… a little vague perhaps?

Steve: Hang on a minute – I know! What about everywhere? If here is everywhere then we wouldn’t need to combine your here with mine. We could both be here at the same time because here would be everywhere.

Steph: If I was everywhere, I know I’d still be here but how would I know if you’re here, too, if I can’t see you? And you couldn’t see me?

Steve: It’s an abstract everywhere. You know. Like social media. Everyone is here together, they are everywhere. But no one is really there with anyone else.

Steph: Oh… 

Come back 'forenoon'

Whatever happened to the word forenoon? Where has it gone? Why don't we use it? Why did it go?

I think it's sad that this lovely word seems to have disappeared. We still use the word afternoon all the time, so why is forenoon not good enough now? I think afternoon is a bit lonely and overburdened. I think its head is spinning.

I know all languages change - and should change for their own good, for their own survival - still, what does forenoon's disappearance say about us? About how we live our lives? Have we all lost half our day, has it been consumed by modernity's sucking whirlpool and cracking pace and complexity? Is the time between dawn and midday, noon, twelve post meridiem just a blur these days, a haze of unrecognizable minutes? Is this first half of the day worthless and predetermined so by our fantastic culture and advanced civilization?

I might be a distant and feeble voice in the back of the room, but I miss you forenoon. I believe in you and wish you were back with us. And afternoon misses you, too, it misses its other half. The afternoon can only come if the forenoon precedes it. And the forenoon can only exist when the afternoon has once again passed. They need each other and offer us balance.

Here's one of my favorite quotes with a mention of the word forenoon. It's by Henry Thoreau, and I have a feeling he thought of and wrote down this quote some time between the sun rising and midday...in the forenoon you could say...

“If I should sell my forenoons and afternoons to society, as most appear to do, I am sure that for me there would be nothing left worth living for.”