Forever



'Even after the dust is frozen,
about eight people are needed to monitor the arsenic and treat the water year-round, forever.' Adrian Paradis

I dropped out of Metaphysics as soon as the prof started talking about pink elephants. It was the only class I ever dropped in my long eight years of university. My buddy that I signed up with went on to earn a PhD in Philosophy (focus on Søren Kierkegaard) and the last anyone heard of him he was living in a monastery in Tibet. To think he was the one smashing ashtrays on his forehead before the Metallica gig... Excuse me, I digress.

I heard the opening quote above on CBC Radio One this past weekend. It was part of a story on a contaminated gold mine in the Yukon. To use forever in this context is careless. As a matter of fact, I think most of us use forever carelessly and in vain.

You said you would love them forever. Is it still forever, now? A great LP may I add.

Being the Metaphysics dropout that I am, can someone attempt to explain to me what forever is? Thanks.