Ripples in a Pool

Ripples in a Pool[1]

Last summer, my wife and I, together with several other families, went to Chanticleer, a nearby estate and botanical garden that is open to the public. One of the group, Keith and I, went for a pre-lunch walk through the garden. We passed a pool that, as I recall, was about 10 feet wide and 25 feet long. As many people do, Keith started ripples in the pool and we watched them travel the length of the pool and return, over and over. The ripples raised for us, as I suspect other ripples have done for many other people in the past, an existential question: If we came back next week and, assuming no one else made their own waves in the meantime, would the ripples still be there, traveling back and forth from one end of the pool to the other?

Have you asked this or a similar question about your own ripples in a pool? What was your answer then—did you think they would still be there when you returned? Under similar circumstances how would you answer now?

Suppose you changed some of the "givens" of the question; would your answer be the same?  Does the time before Keith and I return make a difference in your answer? Does the length of the pool affect your answer—for example, suppose the pool is "infinitely" long?

Will the ripples be there forever? If you think the ripples will or will not be there forever, what do you men by "forever"? What have the ripples to tell us about the meaning of forever in our world?

Notes
1. If you enjoy this kind of thinking, you might enjoy reading my book, Donald W. Jarrell, At the Edge of Time: Reality, Time, and Meaning in a Virtual Everyday World (North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2012, 2014.). See: At the Edge of Time.

Next post on a bi-weekly schedule: September 11, 2015.




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