Al Cunningham
Box E-22600
San Quentin, C~ 94974
 

THE PAST

        In the essence of man’s existence lies a self-rejuvenating energy, an inner power which impels him to reach out and demand more of life than his immediate environment, or social or economic position.

        In this strange and mysterious world of man, man endures to be intellectually brilliant, physically tough, mentally persevering, resolute and dedicated; and yet, forever wondering if infinity itself is no more than a trick of time, a telescoping of large moments against some vast backdrop called eternity.

        In the vast depth of individualism, man tends to vasculate the dreams of his life, and concentrates more vividly on the empire of reality, and yet, in the deep moments of cogitation man finds that the uniqueness within those dreams help to calculate and cultivate the essence of his reality, thereby encouraging new meanings to his existence.

        It is said: “Two heads are better than one,” but what if the commodities of logic or the values differ in the two? Can the embodying knowledge and wisdom achieve productive responses and results long enough to create a sophisticated system by which man can function as a civilized and humane person? Or will man waste the essence of the opportune era to subsevient the pleasantry of yesterday?

        The dramatic confrontation tends to draw light on the pivotal nocturnals of man. Subsequently, we should face the realization that we are all potential fossils still carrying within our bodies the crudities of former existences’ the marks of a world in which living creatures flow with little more consistency than clouds from age to age.

        As man stands on his circumscribed pinpoint of time, his sight for the past is growing longer, and even the shadowy outlines of the galactic futureare growing clearer, though his own fate he cannot yet see. Along the dimension of time, man, like the rooted vine in space, may never pass in person. Considering the innumberable devices by which the mindless root has evaded the limitations of its own stability, however, it may well be that man himself is slowly achieving powers over a new dimension - a dimension capable of presenting him with a wisdom he has barely begun to discern.

        Through how many dimensions and how many media will life have to pass? Down how many roads among the stars must man propel himself in search of the final secret? The journey is difficult, immense, at times impossible, yet that will not deter some of us from attempting it. We cannot know all that has happened in the past, or the reason for all of these events, any more than we can with surety discern what lies ahead. We have joined the caravan, you might say, at a certain point; we will travel as far as we can, but we cannot on one lifetime see all that we would like to see or learn all that we hunger to know

BY: AL CUNNINGHAM