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The Exiles


The author of Orphan Train returns with an ambitious, emotionally resonant ...
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Mathinna feels her people don't believe in record keeping, believing that "time doesn't move in a line from past to present but instead is continuous." What do you think she meant by this? Do you agree?

Created: 10/14/20

Replies: 8

Posted Oct. 14, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
davinamw

Join Date: 10/15/10

Posts: 3442

Mathinna feels her people don't believe in record keeping, believing that "time doesn't move in a line from past to present but instead is continuous." What do you think she meant by this? Do you agree?

Mathinna feels her people don't believe in record keeping, believing that "time doesn't move in a line from past to present but instead is continuous." What do you think she meant by this? Do you agree?


Posted Oct. 15, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
Anne C.

Join Date: 10/09/14

Posts: 58

RE: Mathinna feels her people don't believe in record keeping, believing that "time doesn't move in a line from past to present but instead is continuous." What do you think she meant by this? Do you agree?

I have heard of similar beliefs about time in other cultures as well. It is not a concept that I can easily understand, since to me time seems like a line from past to future. Interestingly enough, the idea that all possible times exist right now is not inconsistent with Biblical teachings about the eternal and omniscient presence of God, who is believed to exist outside time and be present in all times at once.


Posted Oct. 16, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
kimk

Join Date: 10/16/10

Posts: 889

RE: Mathinna feels her people don't believe in record keeping, believing that "time doesn't move in a line from past to present but instead is continuous." What do you think she meant by this? Do you agree?

I agree with Anne above. I know that many cultures have a different view of time, and in spite of reading many, many sci fi books regarding time travel, I just can't wrap my head around time being anything other than linear.


Posted Oct. 16, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
Gloria

Join Date: 03/11/15

Posts: 120

RE: Mathinna feels her people don't believe in record keeping, believing that "time doesn't move in a line from past to present but instead is continuous." What do you think she meant by this? Do you agree?

Perhaps when a culture engages in storytelling rather than record keeping, all time can seem present because stories from the past are being told in the present for preservation for the future. So it sort of becomes a circle rather than a straight line.

Maybe I'm not explaining myself too well, but perhaps that is what she meant.


Posted Oct. 19, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
barbettet

Join Date: 10/01/20

Posts: 25

RE: Mathinna feels her people don't believe in record keeping, believing that "time doesn't move in a line from past to present but instead is continuous." What do you think she meant by this? Do you agree?

Gloria nailed it! In cultures where storytelling is so important, past, present and future become an ongoing circle where one blends into the next. Stories from our past help to define who we are and what we will become. Ruby's present and future have been determined in part by past events.


Posted Oct. 21, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
Loveslife

Join Date: 08/01/15

Posts: 66

RE: Mathinna feels her people don't believe in record keeping, believing that "time doesn't move in a line from past to present but instead is continuous." What do you think she meant by this? Do you agree?

There are many cultures-especially older ones that believe life is a cycle connected continuously with the past present and the future. The cultures that use the oral tradition of story telling keep ancestors and traditions alive for listeners. I agree with Gloria above that in these cases life becomes a circle instead of a line-the Circle of Life if you will. The concepts of time has so many possibilities and unknowns that I feel no one culture has all the answers.


Posted Oct. 28, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
Navy Mom

Join Date: 04/12/12

Posts: 294

RE: Mathinna feels her people don't believe in record keeping, believing that "time doesn't move in a line from past to present but instead is continuous." What do you think she meant by this? Do you agree?

I keep track of the times of my life by milestones that have happened in my life, like the birth of my sons and the deaths of my parents. I see time as linear but I also see the past being only yesterday... Example: My mom died in 1998 and when I remember her it is like just yesterday because there are no new memories that were made with her. So the time with her was just a day ago. It's like that with others also. Photographs also take me back. Now that I have grandchildren I feel like some things are repeating themselves with these new children. So that is circular.


Posted Nov. 05, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
elizabethabby

Join Date: 07/30/15

Posts: 22

RE: Mathinna feels her people don't believe in record keeping, believing that "time doesn't move in a line from past to present but instead is continuous." What do you think she meant by this? Do you agree?

What this speaks to me about, is being so fully rooted in the only moment we have, which is the present, that you are either unaware of or indifferent to the past or the future. I think we can all remember times that we have been so fully alive (on a wonderful vacation....at our wedding...etc), that there is simply no need or desire to think of anything else except what we are experiencing. I realize that not every moment for Mathinna and her family was bliss. But I think there is something to be said about the quiet contentment that a simple life facilitates. And to me, that is what this quote represents.


Posted Nov. 06, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
dianaps

Join Date: 05/29/15

Posts: 460

RE: Mathinna feels her people don't believe in record keeping, believing that "time doesn't move in a line from past to present but instead is continuous." What do you think she meant by this? Do you agree?

Anne and Gloria both give us good possibilities for understanding the lack of record keeping in some cultures.


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