Posting a memory forward to a distant future
I am reading The Overstory by Richard Powers, and in the book Patricia tells her botany students (emphasis mine):
“Billions of years ago, a single, fluke, self-copying cell learned how to turn a barren ball of poison gas and volcanic slag into this peopled garden. And everything you hope, fear, and love became possible.” They think she’s nuts, and that’s fine with her. She’s content to post a memory forward to their distant futures,
I have believed that without questions, answers do not have a place in one’s mind, and that people would not be able to grasp or internalize them. I took this idea from Clay Christensen.
Powers, with this example, suggests that it can be done in such a way that it stays with someone until the time for meaning comes.
