I was heading back to camp from a watering hole where I was watching elephants have an evening drink and a cooling spray of water when I came across a fairly large and wicked looking spider. My South African guide was just around the bush putting logs on the camp fire. I yelled to him, “Hey, come tell me what kind of spider this is.”
He said, “I’m coming just now.”
Now is defined in the dictionary as “at the present time or moment”. I have always known the word now to mean just that – now; at the present time or moment. So when my guide said he was coming “just now” I thought he would be there within seconds. I waited a few minutes then peaked around the corner to see that he was still there poking at the fire.
“The spider is going to be gone by the time you get here. Are you coming?” I asked of the guide.
“I’m coming now, now,” he said. And he was there in a flash.
He identified the spider that he saw for only a moment before the spider crept into a hole then my guide and I proceeded back to camp where he continued to poke at the fire. I sat in a camp chair enjoying the warm flames of the now roaring fire on that chilly spring evening and pondered.
“So when you say just now what does it mean?” I asked my guide.
He said, “Oh you Americans are funny. Just now means I will come but I will finish what I am working on or doing first.”
Hmmm I thought. “So now, now really means now?” I asked.
“It depends on the situation,” he said without much contemplation.
I sat and watched the fire for a couple more minutes hearing lions roar in the near distance then asked, “So if I were to say there was a lion attacking me, would you come just now or now, now?”
He thought about it for a second then said, “What the hell good would I be if a lion was already attacking you? I don’t have a gun. I would run in the opposite direction,” he said, and then he added, “now, now.”
He said, “I’m coming just now.”
Now is defined in the dictionary as “at the present time or moment”. I have always known the word now to mean just that – now; at the present time or moment. So when my guide said he was coming “just now” I thought he would be there within seconds. I waited a few minutes then peaked around the corner to see that he was still there poking at the fire.
“The spider is going to be gone by the time you get here. Are you coming?” I asked of the guide.
“I’m coming now, now,” he said. And he was there in a flash.
He identified the spider that he saw for only a moment before the spider crept into a hole then my guide and I proceeded back to camp where he continued to poke at the fire. I sat in a camp chair enjoying the warm flames of the now roaring fire on that chilly spring evening and pondered.
“So when you say just now what does it mean?” I asked my guide.
He said, “Oh you Americans are funny. Just now means I will come but I will finish what I am working on or doing first.”
Hmmm I thought. “So now, now really means now?” I asked.
I sat and watched the fire for a couple more minutes hearing lions roar in the near distance then asked, “So if I were to say there was a lion attacking me, would you come just now or now, now?”
He thought about it for a second then said, “What the hell good would I be if a lion was already attacking you? I don’t have a gun. I would run in the opposite direction,” he said, and then he added, “now, now.”
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