The Continuum that is Life

[Tmac]

There may be more but I can say that there are at least two ways to look at the continuum that is life.
The most popular (probably learned in the classroom when we studied our history) seems to be that life starts/begins at point A then move as a continuum to point X as a straight line and just as a straight line is a series of dots connected so close as to appear that there are no breaks, (to the magnified eye we know that this is not the case) so too the continuum of life is broken into segments of time, to the point where 2017 can not realate to the year 1, it as if the mighty Oak doesn't believe it was ever an acorn. Uniqueness denies its simple origin.
A second way, as I said there may be more, is to see life as starting/begining at point A and moving outward as concentric circles where A is constant to each circle but each circle is unique to each other thus establishing a point of origin that is shared.
Life is a learning experience, how we see it and understand it is how we live it. If you can't relate to your history, its not your fault and explains a great many of the problems experienced in life.

 

[Jeremiah Ames]

I will go with the second choice.

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

Life is a learning experience, how we see it and understand it is how we live it. If you can't relate to your history, its not your fault and explains a great many of the problems experienced in life.

I agree with this part.

As for the earlier parts, I think they are looking at life/existence in two dimensions, and not in the three or four or more that might actually be. I think it is a mistake to see our existences as anything separated from the path of life back to the beginning, or separated from all the other life that now exists.

life is an ongoing flow, not unlike a river...we are all part of one, lengthwise and crosswise, as it were, even though we perceive our selves (and others) to be separate...perceiving things this way allows us to function in the environment and contemplate our situation, but it is mostly an illusion...

or, another way to look at us is to consider us (and every 'thing' else) as nodes in a complex web extending from the past to the present and into the future, as well as across present (well, and the past and future as well).

Overall, from the beginning, life and the environment make up a 'straight line,' but the course for any "individual' is not straight...and depending on how you choose to represent it, the overall path may not be straight, either, much as a river through a landscape...