Moment by Moment

This afternoon I had my Rhetorical Tradition class at 12:00 pm like every other Thursday. I sat through an hour of lecturing while trying my best to keep my eyes open long enough to scribble down the gist of what my professor was saying. It wasn't until the clock struck 1, that class took a bit of a turn.

She put on a video that would demonstrate Hugh Blair's concept of the Sublime during the age of Enlightenment. What played before us was a collection of 1-4 second clips of people living their day to life. From a child's first steps to someone crying. Waking up and cars colliding to hanging out at a bar. Every moment, big, small and everything in-between was captured in a really beautiful way. The purpose of showing the class this in terms of academia was to sift through Blair's four characteristics of being sublime: simplicity, innate beauty, brevity, and verbal strength. Although the video had almost no dialogue the strength of it resonated with me.

My professor began to speak about the real point of the video. The beauty of life that it showcased. The idea of savoring every moment good and bad and how special each one can be. She harbored on a concept I feel I fall victim to often: waiting. "After this midterm school will be fun", "After this semester I'm going to get my life in order", "Once I'm a sophomore I'll find peace in myself", "After I graduate life will be great", or even "After I retire it will all be smooth sailing". We fall into the rhythm of waiting for something better when often the good is current. My professor noted that "We are what we practice" meaning, if we are always waiting for something better, we will always be waiting for something better, because that's all we know how to do.

At this point in the semester I'm balancing midterms, a social life, my family at home, friends here, on top of little to no sleep which one could say has done a number on my psyche. It definitely has been difficult to see the beauty or the good in my current moment especially with all of my deadlines and To Do lists but today I was reminded that it's there. This morning I woke up with the mentality that I just have to get through today and then it's Friday and failed to see the good that Thursday's hold.

The lesson I took from today's Rhetorical Tradition Class (besides the rhetoric of The Middle Ages) was to not only live in the moment but appreciate the moment for what it is. Even when things are not going well, sometimes that's life. If we spend our whole life waiting for life to be better we will spend our whole lives waiting instead of living and being in the moment.