Friday, November 03, 2006

in, at, im and other moments in time

Martin has this wonderful german accent right? (he says he does NOT have an accent at all! - we agree to disagree on this ;))

What I love best about his inflection though is this line he says...often.

"In the moment..."

I think its from the German "im moment" but don't quote me on that.

I say "At the moment" and now, when I look at these two statements side by side, his way of saying it makes much more sense.

What we do, say, think or feel is very often IN the moment its expressed. To me, the wee word "at" kind of implies the moment is yet to come as in "about to occur".

Some people are quite gifted at thinking things through carefully and choosing their words with cautious intent. I'm not one of them! I do take time over things like story and blog writing but on the whole not much else I do, say, think or feel is ever really "about to occur"!

I tend to say, do and think things and then verbally (or textually) express them pretty much that instant IN the moment of their conception. It's a risky habit and I do need to learn to put some space and distance between my thoughts and their external expression sometimes. I guess the plus side to this is that I am, if nothing else, a very natural person :) If you can overlook the chronic Foot-in-mouth disease!

To me the saying "in the moment" seems more honest in many ways than saying "at the moment". It's such a subtle thing though and I suppose it's not a really big deal as such but it just struck me that it could make a difference in my own understanding of how I think and then act in the moment.

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