Niño & Niña giving me affection and close comfort

How can the past and future be, when the past no longer is, and the future is not yet? As for the present, if it were always present and never moved on to become the past, it would not be time, but eternity. St. Augustine of Hippo, Confessions

Walking with Niño today between the rainy periods I was struck by a thought as I was enjoying the moment. Walking Niño is one of the most (if not the most) important of my daily duties. I feel guilty when I cannot walk him.

Taking the same route that Rosemary took around the block is when I feel closest to her. It might rival being on my bed on the left side and sensing that absent presence on my right.

I have always admired, because of my Roman Catholic education at St.Edward’s High School in Austin, Texas, two saints. One is St. Thomas Aquinas and the other Saint Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo.

In our religion class, taught by Brother Edwin Reggio, C.S.C., I figured years later, that it had been more than a religion class, one of theology, full of philosophy that had begun with Aristotle’s Unmoved Mover.

God & the Unmoved Mover in the bowling alley

St. Augustine was saint in his later life which is why his suffering mother Monica was made a saint. Augustine wanted to be a good man but he had pleaded with God to give him time to have some fun.

Buried in Augustine’s Confessions is the one, two, three concept that came to mind today as I walked Niño.

Augustine explained that when one listened to music one would hear a note in the past, listen to it in the present and predict the next note in the future. Of course we could state here that Augustine had no concept of atonal music. 

I have all those memories of living with Rosemary for 52 years and of my life with my mother, father and grandmother, before I met her. In this present, the present on 7^th Avenue with Niño behind me, It came to me that Augustine was right. I could prolong that present into a near eternity of pleasure. In short words my daughter Hilary would say to me, “Enjoy every moment you have, while you have it.”

It would seem that Hilary Stewart and the Bishop of Hippo agree.