Thoughts on Temporariness

(A Toastmaster Basic Speech)

Ladies and Gentlemen:

        Has it ever occurred to you that a  raisin could eat up a golden colored orange?  I bet you're

now just thinking that this must be one of those riddles that go around.   And you're right, you 

know.  It is a riddle. And I can even tell you right now what it is all about.  That the raisin eating up

the orange is actually an allusion to the somber darkness of night slowly overcoming the glowing 

brightness of day. This notion is definitely poetic, don't you think?   And it fascinates me to 

realize that it actually triggers one's visualization of change- as in the change from day to night. 

This could also bring about the notion of alternation- as in day comes after night, and then night 

comes after day and so on.  So here we have change and alternation.  And you know, there are

still other relative notions.. ..but of all these what really interests me is the notion of 

temporariness. The fact that day or night does not last forever necessarily bring about the other

fact that both are at best only temporary. And dear friends, my thoughts on these, I'd like to share

with you.

        By definition, temporariness is a quality or property of lasting for only for a short time.  but 

even the word temporariness triggers diverse semantic shades. From the materialistic point of 

view, for instance, the stage is set for temporariness versus ownership.  Ownership is about 

attachment,  dependency,  and possession.  Temporariness induces detachment while 

ownership sustains attachment.   Ownership is no longer the way to experience because these

days we rent.  We rent our cars, we rent our houses, we rent our clothes.... we even rent our 

dates - if you watched that movie, 'The Wedding Date'.  We are seeing the rejection of the 

so-called Accumulation Society as indicated by a recent study.  Here, most Americans use only 

20% of what they own because apparently, they enjoy objects only for purposeful use but not for

holding on to and letting these objects control them.  They will care for and respect these 

objects but they will not become attached to them.  In other words,  rather than ownership, they 

will go for temporariness.

        Another outlook on temporariness that we can identify is philosophical.  Here we look into

the contrast between the temporariness of the world and the eternality of God.  Of course, 

different people have a different name for God  but we all refer to the same supernatural being. Philosophers start with our basic experience which is the experience of time. 'Time', they say, 

is the continuance of  anything in its own being like the rivers running on and on, or the sun 

shinning on and on.  But time is also an essential category to existence - to 'being'.... to being 

alive, if you may.  Like being able to respond to the senses of seeing, of  hearing, of tasting and 

smelling and of touching.  Still, another correlate of time would be 'duration',  which according to 

John Locke, is a common measure of existence wherein  all partake equally.  It refers to the 

length of time a thing would be in actuality...-as how our toastmasters club meeting at the 

moment lasts from 12 noon to 1 pm.   And to push it even further, 'duration' is continued 

existence.....but it also refers to a possibility of existence followed by non-existence. Or in other 

words, the possibility of existence followed by death - the end of existence.  Therefore, as we 

have over-simplified, these aspects of Time, Duration, and Existence all point out to the 

temporariness of this world - where existence stops at an end point. On the other hand, if  we

were to identify an ideal reality where existence is a constant and an unchanging principle of 

order, then this is what we would know as eternity - or foreverness.... the standpoint of God.  

And  temporariness simply negates eternality.

        My dear friends, I do go along with both the materialistic and philosophical views of 

temporariness but you know what - there still is another view which I am inclined to favor and this

is the simple dichotomy of  temporariness and permanence in this world.  You see, I maintain 

two columns in my life: -that of temporariness and that of permanence.  And to each, I delegate

people, objects and facts. Of course, who these people are and what those objects and what 

those facts may be, I will keep a secret from you.  One thing, I can tell you, however,  is about a 

fact that will never be found under the temporariness column - the fact, Ladies and Gentlemen, -

that I am a toastmaster!

Mister Toastmaster.........