Reminds me of death, which, while not entirely the same, has certain similarities.
We always see death as something perpetually in the future. But death can strike at any moment, like the proverbial thief in the night. Not only that, when it does come, it will not be in the future. It will be lived and experienced in the now, just like this very moment.
It's like we're on a speeding train with no view of what's in front of us. At any moment, that train might slam into an impenetrable wall or hurtle off a cliff or sink into the depths of the ocean.
I visited the Indian Ladder Trail not far from Albany NY, and there is a section where you walk under a rock ledge at the bottom of a sheer cliff. Even though it had probably been that way for millennia, I still felt a bit queazy walking underneath.
There’s a nice stream that feeds into a river near a family member’s home in northeast Ohio. It’s got crystal clear water and a gravel stream bed - the kids love to flip over rocks to find and catch crayfish. On the opposite side of the bank is a sheer wall of sandstone about 20 feet tall. If you stand there for any length of time, you can hear it cracking and every 30-45 seconds you’ll hear (and maybe see) a small rock or a pebble come down and splash into the water. (It’s been doing that for decades or longer and nobody has ever seen anything larger come down so I’ve always felt it was perfectly safe to be on the opposite bank)
It is not an uncommon occurence in the White Mountains for stray boulders to injure and sometimes kill hikers. Just another reason not to wear headphones/buds while hiking, even a split second warning could be critical.
We always see death as something perpetually in the future. But death can strike at any moment, like the proverbial thief in the night. Not only that, when it does come, it will not be in the future. It will be lived and experienced in the now, just like this very moment.
It's like we're on a speeding train with no view of what's in front of us. At any moment, that train might slam into an impenetrable wall or hurtle off a cliff or sink into the depths of the ocean.