the.com/impermanence
The only promise the universe actually keeps, and it keeps it by breaking everything.
means The quality of not lasting — the basic fact that things, people, and moments change or end.
from Built from the prefix 'im-' (not) plus 'permanence,' which traces back to the Latin 'permanere' — 'per-' (through) and 'manere' (to stay or remain). So permanence is literally 'staying all the way through,' and impermanence is the negation of that promise. The idea gets some of its philosophical weight from Buddhist thought, where 'anicca' (impermanence) is a core teaching about the transient nature of all things — but the English word itself is just a tidy Latin denial bolted onto a quiet verb for staying put.
- buddhist core
- one of three marks of existence, alongside suffering and non-self
- your cells
- most of your body replaces itself within about a decade
- mountains
- erode at roughly the same rate fingernails grow
- ironic twist
- the feeling of permanence is itself temporary