Through time and space we are able to relate to our skiing reality. It is us who impose the spatio-temporal framework on our interaction with the mountain environment.
Let us now turn to the philosophy of time, which does not seek to understand its nature but rather how it affects us existentially.
Time is something to which we cannot remain indifferent because it transports us inexorably forward. Our common sense teaches us that time is linear, that it happens beyond and that it has three dimensions: past, present and future.
But how do we convey the concept of time? St. Augustine said, “I know it to understand it, but if I want to explain it to whoever asks me, I do not know it, but I dare say that I know with certainty that if nothing passed there would be no past time; that if nothing survived again there would be no future time, and if nothing existed there would be no present time.”
And he went on to ask: “In what way are the past and the future, if the past is no longer and the future does not yet exist? How can we say that the present exists, but will cease to be, since we cannot say that the present is time, as it is on the way to ceasing to be?”
He also argued that, instead of dividing time into past, present, and future, we should think of it as memory (a present of things past), perception (a present of things present), and waiting (a present of things to come).
In relation to our three-dimensional interpretation of time in present, past, and future, we remember the past skiing, we consider the future, yet frequently neglect our present skiing. The present skiing is the only thing we can say that it is: an authentic reality, the only thing properly existing in the now.
Determinism posits the notion of continuous causality between the past and the present, and between the present and the future. According to this philosophical current, the present is caused by the past and the future by the present. The present is considered to be a dividing line between two dimensions that do not exist, a limit between the past and the future, however, the present does not have a limit.
According to Aristotle, the measure of change is time. The Greeks viewed time in a circular manner, that is, as a continuous repetition of regular cycles. In Christianity, the idea of linear time was introduced, in which each instant is unique and unrepeatable. Postmodernity maintains the linearity of time, but as moments channeled towards a desired transformation and progress.
In reality, it is illusory to think of time as a linear addition because time flows. We believe time exists in specific ‘hours’, whereas in reality, time is that ‘in between’ the past and the future.
To ski is to project our skier’s self ever forward, opening up a space of possibilities in front of us. Yet repetition diverts our attention from time, even more so if what we are skiing is rewarding.
The moments of a pleasurable descent persist because the present extends as we are being impacted by the enjoyable. Epicurus posited we should do things as if we were doing them for the first time, regardless of whether we had done them many times before. This helps us to eliminate the routine that comes from repetition.
