On Looking Forward

 

 

Looking forward. The human animal wouldn’t know what to do without this “looking forward.” There is no future, but we make it up, invent it, and “look forward” to it. Hopefully. . . Insanity.

 

How We Talk To Each Other

“Nice talking to you, Joe; I look forward to seeing you on Saturday.” What does that piece of American speech mean? The first part, “Nice talking to you,” does not necessarily mean that the speaker enjoyed speaking with Joe. He maybe enjoyed it, but more likely the encounter gave him no particular pleasure. Maybe he deeply dislikes Joe and took absolutely no pleasure in speaking to him. Then why did he say, “Nice talking to you, Joe”? Because that phatic expression is just something that is said: social cement. Does it have any meaning? No. Zilch.

 The second part, “I look forward to seeing you,” may also be a lie; more phatic stuff. But if the speaker really does look forward to seeing Joe on Saturday the locution implies a mental exercise on the speaker’s part. He places himself at a time into the future (Saturday) and imagines himself running into Joe again at that future time. Which exercise is just one more example of human insanity, since the speaker has no idea at the time of speaking whether Saturday will ever come. There is always a possibility that either he, or Joe, or both, will have already, before next Saturday, passed off of this earth into Eternity.

 So why do we say these things? For social cement, yes, and just because. After all, we have been given a tongue, so we must flap it.

[excerpted from the book by U.R. Bowie, Here We Be. Where Be We?]