Since the destruction of the Second Temple, only fools prophesy, wrote the Talmud. William Randolph Hearst, self-confident in Venice in 1934, assured his readers that Europe had insufficient funds for war. No European nation has enough money to make war. . . . Depend upon it, there will be no war for many years to come.
Anti-prophesy, seeing the truth backwards, is equally dependable. For centuries, the premature death of Mozart at age 35, was attributed to to every imaginable symptom, disease and scandal. Rheumatic fever. Vasculitis. Bloodletting. Trichinosis. Salts of mercury. Syphilis. Recent research asked an obvious question: What were people disproportionately dying of at the time? Just strep infections.
Speaking of distance backwards, Jewish law forbad a woman from being divorced against her will 1,000 years ago. Divorce itself was a legal procedure, not a masculine whim, already 3,000 years ago. The same is true in Morocco as of five years ago, in 2004.
Speaking of the present time, as in this month, actually this minute, now, Heathrow Airport has appointed a writer in residence. A Week at the Airport is due out in September, and is being written, well, now, as you read. Former artists-in-residence, as in Renaissance Florence, for example, worked as long as it took to produce a piece for eternity. No more. Computer. Author. Suite at a Heathrow Hotel. Interviews with passengers such as with divorced dads eagerly waiting for their children to disembark: Thats eternity in art today. Now. Forgotten . . . tomorrow.
Here today, gone . . . tomorrow. We progress: From foot, to horse, to wagon, to ship, to railroad, to automobile, to airplane, to . . . backward movement, again. What with airlines in dire straits, small cities have lost air service. Want to fly to Roswell, New Mexico? Well, from 2002-2007, forget it. But where theres a will, theres a way. The city of Roswell is now paying airlines to fly there. Guaranteed minimum income. Thus, America Eagle will fly from Dallas-Ft. Worth to Roswell, and now the city is trying to give away more money to convince an airline to fly from Roswell to LA. Lots of cities are doing this Wichita, for example. Trying to keep tomorrow ahead of today, out of temporal reverse.
What is the following: backward or forward, progress or reverse? Hertz is devising a machine to take a computer read of every indentation and scratch on your rental vehicle. Was that nasty mark already there when you rented the car? No more arguing. The computer will save you an unpleasant confrontational position, assures Hertz, ever willing to save you time and trouble; not necessarily money, however.
And thanks to 9/11, we have time and eternity, backwards and forwards rolled into one, as the 9/11 memorial foundation has created a 9/11 memorial preview site. You can look back to see if thats how you want to look forward.
