The past is sitting under a tree and sipping tea. The chorus (days) are moving around in the background. Enter Present continuous

Present continuous: (addressing the audience) Make the most of me, make the most of me. I'm your only reality. Don't look behind or ahead. Look here instead.

Past: Hello my friend the present continuous. How are you today?

Present continuous: (keeps moving) very well, thank you.

Past: Come and sit down. Enjoy a nice cup of tea with me.

Present continuous: I'm afraid I can't. I'm continuous; understand? I 'm always in progress. Actually, I'm like a river. How can you ask a river to sit down?

Past: A river? You said a river? But a river has a mouth, that is a beginning and an estuary, that is an end, where are yours?

Present continuous: (stuttering) well…then… I'm…I'm like the wind, yes, unstoppable like the wind!

Past: Wind? Ha! Ha! Where is your wind, my friend?

Present continuous: What do you mean?

Past: The word you said a few seconds ago, where is it? Can you see it?  Has it not disappeared? You see, no sooner do you say something than it dies and once dead, it belongs to the past. Your river as well as your wind have all gone with the wind. You are nothing. Rather than a reality you are a mirage. In contrast, I'm real and solid. I'm your beginning and your end; I'm the mouth of your river and its estuary.

Present continuous sits down, stunned.

 

Chorus (moving to the forefront of the stage)  

 

Enter the simple present

Simple present: what have you done to my brother?

Past: I said the truth and the truth shocked him.

Simple present: What truth?

Past: That he is false and that I am real; that he depends on me, not I on him.

Simple present: my brother has his role and you have yours. Why should you make such a fuss about it?

Past: I'm just dotting the "I's to make things clear to people who seem to be deceived by the so-called present.

Simple present: So-called present? Do you mean that there are no present tenses?

Past: Of course there are present tenses; you and your brother, but the point is you are a false representation of time.

Simple present: with all due respect, my friend the past, I think you are deceiving people because everyone knows that, on the contrary, I'm the truest representation of time. Don't I possess the unique quality of being timeless? Aren't I called the Timeless present? Aren't I used to express permanent truths?

Past: Yes, you are, and that is precisely why I'm saying you are a deceiver. Your timelessness is false.

Simple present: you don't seem to understand the word timeless. I am called timeless because I encompass past, present and future. For example, when I say I speak English, this implies that I speak it today, spoke it yesterday and will speak it tomorrow. Do you see, now?

Past: And what if you died tonight? Will you be speaking English tomorrow?

Simple present: Well…I…I… this is only an example, obviously if I died…

Past: I have another question my friend the simple present. If again you died tonight, what tense shall we use at your funeral? Shall we say, he speaks or he spoke?

Simple present: Die! Die! You really have an obsession with death!

Past: Ha! Ha! Come face it my friend the simple present. You are a past wearing the garments of presentness. You are, like your brother the present continuous, only another facet of the past!

Simple present stunned sits down next to the present continuous.

 

Chorus (moving to the forefront of the stage)  

Enter future

Future: Oh my poor brothers, I overheard everything. I was behind that hill. Don't worry brothers; I swear to God, I'll avenge you.

Past: Good morning, my friend the future. Take it easy. Sit down and let's talk it over.

Future: I won't sit with an arrogant person like you. Who do you think you are? You want to lay your hands on everything. Don't you realize that by destroying my two brothers you will ultimately destroy yourself? Besides, isn't there enough room for all of us? Aren't we the poles that support the world?

Past: My friend the future, you misunderstand me. I do not claim to be God. I am a creature just like you. I don't want to destroy anyone. What I want everyone here to understand is that everything will come back to me. I want the world to hear the truth:

The present, whether continuous or simple, is so brief and fleeting that it hardly exists. Man is a mountain of pasts piled one on top of the other.

Future: It may be so, but for the past to become past it has to go through the present! So how can you deny its existence?

Past: I don't. My only purpose is to make everyone realize that I am the end of everything. I am the end of the present continuous, I'm the end of the present simple and I'm the end of you, too, my friend the future. Indeed, where are the presents and futures of dead people? Aren't they all forgotten pasts? Once realized, this fact will deepen everyone's understanding of life.

Future: Yes, but man has a future, doesn't he? The future is something clear and real. While I stand ahead, you, the past, stay behind! So how dare you claim that I have no existence?

Past: You do exist, but your existence is an illusion.

Future: How is that?

Past: Let me give you a simple example. When you say I'm going to do something tomorrow or next year, what shall you say when tomorrow or next year comes and you have done the thing?

Future: well…that I have done it.

Past: Very well. So that means that when a future action is performed it enters the area of the past! Tomorrow becomes yesterday; next year becomes last year. So in the last resort, the future is but a mountain of yesterdays!

Future: What you say may be true, but if people don't project themselves  into the future, their life will have no meaning. We all need to be ambitious and hopeful and where else do ambition and hope dwell but in the future?

Past: Definitely. I can't agree more! This is precisely my message to mankind. I have nothing against you by the way, nor do I have anything against our friends the presents. My purpose is to liberate people from the self-imposed illusion that the present and the future are something concrete and substantial. No, they are not. They have the semblance of reality, but they are not real.

Future: O.K then if we are unreal, we'll go away and leave you to face the world!

Past: No, Friend future, I need your presence just like you need mine. What I want you to do is just be what you and your brothers are so that we can together reinforce man's awareness of the importance of time.

Future: What do you mean by being what you are?

Past: that you and the presents  are hazy and fleeting,  and by assuming this attitude you will encourage man to realize that time is the most precious thing in life, that he has to make the most of a fleeting present and build an imminent future that will inevitably revert to the past.

Future: Fair enough, fair enough.

Past:  (turns to the audience) Listen to me all. I am the end of every man, so while alive make the most of your time, make the most of your present to build a brilliant future and never forget the day when people will say: he was, he did; now he is gone.

 

 

The chorus: