The pedagogy of The Time-travelling Man

Peter Paul Ra Paras

Im 19 years of age, sane and rational. But young as I am, I have already seen a man who has
been travelling across the realms of time. I never believe in powers outreaching the five senses
of men. But when I saw that man, that frail man, still living in present, but can dwell the past and
have a patchy glimpse of the future, I waived my doubts for I was convinced that he was some
sort of a time-traveller.
In actuality and science however, moving in between points of space and time is a controversy.
But in this pedagogic exposition about the mans experience and its underlying lesson, timetravelling shall be a matter of mental occurrence, with the conceived will of the mind to
constantly dwell in the past, thereby losing the value of his now.
The mans background is very profound. His academic excellence during primary and secondary
education years made him deliver Valedictory Addresses. Over his years of pursuit of knowledge,
it has continued to manifest when he finished exemplarily outstanding as he took up his
Collegiate Degree. Being in a family whose centrefold is the public, he has to be decent and
intelligent in appearance. So he needs to put value to his education as much as the pressure his
family name does to him. His father was a politician, and his mother is a descendent from one of
the richest families in their locality. Being academically excelled, he believed, would uphold the
much-clamoured respect and dignity of their family. To safeguard the esteem and goodwill his
parents have had, he has to really be profound.
However, the pursuit to respect and power did not come easy. Swirls of distractions rendered him
unable to finish his post-graduate degree in Medicine. With much pressure and dismay from his
parents, he rerouted his attention to taking up Law. When he did take the exam, however, he
faltered. Rumour has it that his parents were very offended. Very upset.
All through the years of the reigning name of his family, it has slowly toppled down. Expectations
were watered, and dreams from his family were shattered. And it disturbed the man, the now
frail man, the once glorious man, who was never used to upsetting his parents, and to failing.
Until he met his wife, had a job, had children, had gotten his foreign citizenship, and had
travelled around the world with the help of his children now successful, he was still regressing to
his pastthe both glorious and the upsetting past.
At a more scholarly height, Philosophy would come to justify how such mental time-travel
becomes an issue of an existential crisis, whereby one questions the very foundations of his lifes
meaning, purpose and value.
Existentialism tells us then, that a person is solely responsible for giving meaning to his life, and
living it passionately and authentically. In this lens therefore, the time-travelling mans fretting
about the past is his self-choice, his self-sentence, that blinds him to affirm his existential worth.
Epictetus the Souls Cry even underscored the importance of making sense of ones life and
freeing oneself from the hold of grieves and fears. That despite the pain and suffering people
once experienced and have caused to, one must be able to live an ennobled life, rather than
succumbing to a despairing numbness and merely coping like a mule with tedium of unbidden
responsibilities. Giving in to the past strips off your capability to appreciate the beauty and
purpose of every day. Such could mean that the soul truly cries out, ill of being stuck in the old
times, wanting to find a remedy to get out of the pit of regrets and pains, and to start an
unblinking excavation of the faulty and specious premises on which we base our lives and our
personal identity.

Viktor Frankl, the Holocaust survivor, stresses the importance of having a meaningful life--that to
attain so, he has to make best in every moment of living.
Furthermore, the disillusionment of a person makes him irresponsive of the prosaic and
significant matters that happen in every day. Disillusioning oneself by constant regression puts
up an iron gate that admits no new knowledge, expansive possibilities and constructive
appreciation to the present. It alienates others and offends people who make up ones present.
The one who disillusions to the past disenfranchises the effort the present people who make him
feel loved and worthy of living.
The man has his life ahead of him. He had opportunities and experiences that could have helped
him see the beauty of the world, but he just couldnt notice it. He could have seen a greater
meaning in the status quo. He could have more than what he actually asked for. Nothing is as
saddening as a man who has eyes yet fails to see, and a heart that beats but fails to feel. But
that may be where he sees himselfin the past, where all that are there are what ifs and could
haves.
Nevertheless, What Fr. Michael Moga said could emphasize the absence causing his timetravelling. The True wisdom as a good judgement is lost. He has lost his meaning of life when
he experienced defeat. He has lost his willpower to deliver himself to a flourishing and
meaningful life. If one, then truly has a good judgment, short-term failures wont hinder him from
living a flourishing life. He really just rationally wont let it.
As Friedrich Nietzsche says it, He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how. But
he has not. So he couldnt bear it.
Nothing follows