The future possible by Nathalie Hazan

Yesterday night, my 12 yr. old son Zac was lamenting the fact that he had a grammar test on the Past Progressive. I said nothing, not wanting to discourage his academic motivation (which is tenuous at best), but I thought quietly to myself: That makes no sense ... What kind of tense is that?? How can the past be progressive?

You see, I have a slight fascination with quantum physics. A slip of paper I wrote out seven years ago is tacked on my studio wall like a misplaced Tarot card. It says: «Everything in the future is a wave, everything in the past is a particle. » I have translated these words with an obsessive streak working on a series of waves in mixed media. I even dream waves.

If you take a closer look, you might see that my waves flow up from the undercurrent, those particles of the past that keep drifting up like toxic seaweed: the loss of my father, the damage of sexual abuse...

In fact, I think the past is never progressive (sorry Zac). Yesterday is gone. Today is fleeting. Tomorrow is full of possibilities and crashing waves float us to the future.