My philosophical ramblings.

My apartment complex sits right at the T-junction of Route 18 and commercial avenue. Across the Route 18 and opposite to my complex, there used to be little garden and then flows the Raritan River. If you take the aerial view (Google Maps !!) then my apartment, Route 18 and garden is sitting comfortably in the Raritan river basin. When you take right turn on Route 18, from the commercial avenue, you could actually see the basin being blasted off to make the road. But for some 100 feet or so, the blasting of hard rocks formed an elaborate design akin to the grand canyon. Obviously, on the tiny level. But it's kind of ironic to see the natures beauty in human destruction. The elaborate way the caverns formed were quite fancy in design.

During the snow, the icy water would flow through the rock caverns. And, as the temperatures drops, the water would form icicles. It was an amazing picture. With old river valley being monstrously blasted off in the past to make a way for the traffic and in the midst vehicle conundrum, you see, nature's ability not only to rejuvenate but give a designers touch even to the destruction. I always thought about taking picture of that labyrinthine design, every time I pushed it for the next time. And that ‘next time’ never came.

Even though time never stops and things disappear as quickly as they appear, we humans have tendency to believe in immortality of the surrounding. It is as if we try to freeze our mind into a time wrap. We usually hate change, for good or for bad. All though, adaptability is absolutely required for the survival, we groan, we moan, we squirm and we whine, every time something change in our life or in our surrounding. We long for the past because we believe that it was better then than the present. But in the process of painting illusion about our past enjoyments, we totally miss out the rare moments of joy in the present.

The special moments in life seems to be the gift wrapped in the irony. We need to understand this irony. Unless, we discern the reality from the mirage of disappointment and contemplate for a fraction of second about the present - by firmly being in the present - we miss the real fun. And trust me the realization of missing out the real stuff is worst.
Worst than the moments you actually missed.

This doesn't mean we shouldn't contemplate about the past. We should definitely do that. It helps us gaining the perspective about the seemingly incoherent situations in the present. But we need to adapt by not getting burdened by the past. We need to live the moment by acting in the present - well enough - to actually enjoy.

As far as the fine design on the rock caverns are concerned, they are gone for good. Recent road widening construction lead them to be blasted off permanently. I ruined the chance of taking the photograph. And, I am missing that sorely.