The Optimism of the Unwilling
Jim Leftwich
Summer 2022
Nevada
I was I was.
I was thinking. At least I think I was thinking.
Is it possible to think about the fact of 4.6 billion years? I don’t think so.
So. Photographs. We have seen a few, maybe a few hundred thousand. We think we know how to think about photographs.
When are you reading this?
Are you reading it 4.6 billion years after it was written? No.
Are you reading it 4.6 million years after it was written? No.
Are you reading it four thousand and six hundred years after it was written? Maybe. Probably not. But at least I can imagine such a thing.
Are you reading it 460 years after it was written? Could be. I would like to think so.
Are you reading it 46 years after it was written? Sure! Why not? I know: megadroughts, 100-year floods, heat domes, forest fires, resource wars, famines… Another world is possible, and in it you could be reading this… If. If only.
Are you reading it four and a half years after it was written? Yes? Thank you. Where you are, it is January, 2027. I know it isn’t much. But that’s how.. one not much after another… there isn’t any other way.