Hit Reset

        From time-to-time, not infrequently, I find myself thinking that I would like to “hit reset.”

        I’m not sure about the origin of this expression (which has acquired unfortunate currency in the context of present-day politics and so-called statecraft), but I find the urge to totally reorient myself in time and space often to be quite strong – almost irresistible.

        The obvious question is where to set the “way-back” or “way-forward” controls? 

        I have no idea.  

        You might think that a desire to change the “here and now” to “there and when?” has something to do with nostalgia, but in my case that’s not true.  

      Despite what certain people have alleged (once, during a business meeting, someone quite rudely asked me whether or not I actually had a pulse?), I am definitely an emotional person. 

        Still, although I’m reasonably secure and comfortable in my life history and relationships, I am not the least bit nostalgic.  I cannot conceive forming a desire to revisit any personal time or place for sentimental reasons.

      Now, I have had many “pre-vision” experiences, but because these usually involve anticipation of impending disasters, I have no warm or confident feelings about any of the future events or geographies I’ve witnessed.

        When Jane was quite young, she had a terrible accident, which fortunately proved to be a temporary, survivable setback.   During the horrible ordeal, Caroline told her she wished more than anything that we could go back to a time before the incident so that we could “unlive” it.  Jane said (I believe she was only five at the time), “Mom, you can never go backwards except in cartoons and movies.”

        "Again, you have heard that it has been said to the ancients:  You shall not swear falsely, but you shall make good your oaths to the Lord.  I tell you not to swear at all:  not by heaven, because it is the throne of God; not by the earth, because it is the footstool for his feet; not by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great king; not by your own head, because you cannot make one hair of it black or white. Let your speech be yes yes, no no; more than that comes from the evil one."

 

     Mostly, I suppose, I would just like to see sneaks, creeps, actual and virtual killers, and the bad and hypocritical behavior, disappear.

   That would be a more than adequate resetting of the collective table and I could really get to work in earnest.  It might not even feel like work.