Space and Time in Life

Space and time are inextricably  linked.  Not only in art, but in the sentient world in which we live.  Six years ago I was involved in a horrific auto accident in which my neck was broken in four places, one of which was a complete severing of my spine.  As my spinal cord didn't snap, but was 'only' damaged, I'm typing this as you would type, I'm breathing, walking, and living a 'normal' life.  Yet, it's a different life one that continues to unfold in surprising ways.


Recently, I became aware of some events surrounding my accident that I had no conscious memory until recently.  Wedged in what turned out to be my car, I saw all white, heard glass shattering and men yelling.  Other than those brief sense impressions I’ve got no conscious memory of smell, taste, touch, or pain.  It’s funny how there are just these other bits and pieces I do recall, like them cutting off my pants in the E.R., certain friends saying they are there, and whomever said that they needed to get me into the O.R.  Besides moments like those, my memory about any other sense impressions is a blank.


The sense impressions I do recall all seemed to occur at connected and distinct moments in time.  It's like how viewing slides used to be - one image than another.  Except there's one key difference.


Normally in life we have a sense of one moment to the next.  We usually recall what we were doing just a second ago, a hour ago, and so forth.  We have the sense of each moment’s part of the day’s movie.  There's a sense of each separate slide being part of a sequence.  That sense of continuity between moments was utterly absent for me.


When it did return, I didn’t actually realize anything like ‘oh, I’ve returned to my movie life now.’   My consciousness just returned to what I guess was normal and that must have included a sense of segmented moments also being part of a “a river of time,” in the words of Andy Goldsworthy.


What I have a felt sense of now, not just an intellectual idea, is that without a sense of time there is no sense of space.  Where this takes me is space will be revealed in time.