We experience time in the moment. However either understand it or give meaning to it by the past or the future. Carlo Rovelli uses the imagery of a song. A note by itself is just a note or a sound, a melody is created only when we remember the previous notes played and anticipate the future ones coming. When we sing happy birthday, we know the song not because of one note but by seeing/hearing them as a whole. And with happy birthday, we also know it in relation to all the memories associated with the song.

Change is similar in that we understand it not in the moment but either by connecting to the past or future and the memories around it. Change makers understand this and that it is happening in them and those affected by the change.

And one of the beauties of jazz or even compilations is that the composers take us in an unexpected path. The path is only unexpected because of memory and anticipation. When we are only in the moment nothing is unexpected because we are only ever in the present.

Photo by Adrian Korte