By Nancy Patrick

Some words are overused; others are not used enough. One of those words is the subject of this essay. We hear the word “forever” quite often but seldom think of its real significance. We use it when we pray (keep us forever near you, Oh, God), when we marry (I will love you forever), and when we bury those we love (Keep this soul near you forever, Oh, God).

Exactly what do we mean when we use the word so casually? Obviously, “forever” means an indeterminate amount of time that is eternal, never-ending. Rationally, we know that no temporal object or emotion can last forever, yet we romanticize our feelings in order to emphasize the depths of our commitment to someone.

The nuances related to “forever” include some abstract ideas such as “absolutes.” As an English teacher, I taught my students that nouns can be concrete or abstract in nature. What does that mean? I used the students’ desks or chairs as examples of concrete nouns while abstract nouns included qualities such as honor, integrity, or shame. What makes one noun concrete while another is abstract?

I told my students that things which can be perceived through the senses (touch, hear, smell, sight) are concrete. You can tap the desk with a ruler or hear a melody through the ears, or smell the reek of an onion or feel the scratch of sandpaper—these qualities make them concrete. One the other hand, we perceive the qualities of abstractions through mental, intellectual, or spiritual means. A person cannot touch “integrity”; however, we know whether or not a person possesses integrity.

Those descriptions compare somewhat to the concept of “forever.” Because of consistent rises in postal costs over the years, the USPS introduced the forever stamp in 2007. The concept is simple—the price you pay for a forever stamp will remain in effect until you have used all your stamps. When you run out and purchase more, you will get the rate for the new forever stamp. A rather confusing concept—what was forever is no longer forever.

Those first forever stamps cost 46 cents each, but my recent purchase in July 2026 cost 82 cents each. Perhaps the idea that something will remain stable comforts us in the vain hope that not everything will change. The problem is that nothing is really forever, no matter how much we long for that stability.

One of the most hopeful uses of the “forever” word is that love can last forever. Most parents know the kind of love to which I refer. We seem to feel an illogical kind of love for our offspring. I say illogical because the biological connection parents and children is one of the strongest human emotions even though neither party has done anything to earn that kind of love or loyalty. 

Only in the rarest of circumstances do we hear of a parent who cuts off love for the child. Sometimes parents continue to pledge allegiance to a son or daughter even if that child has committed atrocities. A mother or father simply cannot accept as truth that a child is bad. That kind of disloyalty goes against our natural inclination of the thickness (depth) of blood ties.

As the history of humankind progresses, we see some evolution in what was once considered absolute (forever) values. For example, in my youth, we learned that truth is truth absolutely. I am not referring to factual information that can be disproved scientifically but those truths that relate to morality and humanity. Scientific and medical research have disproved much data from the 1920s.

However, treatment of human beings deserves an absolute level of administration. The value of human beings does not relate to race, intelligence, economic, political, or social standings. A study of historical documents reveals that even among the more enlightened societies subtle diction shows prejudice and unfairness in regard to race, gender, education, and socio-economic circumstances. 

Words that relate to gender or race are especially prevalent in what were considered progressive historical documents. Words related to voting, property ownership, and custody of children clearly convey the widely held belief that white men had a distinct advantage in life.

My  point is that people conveniently use every advantage they have to maintain their positions in society. Can we say that anything is “forever”? Most of our usage of the word relates to temporal things we know cannot last forever. In human relationships, the concept of forever is actually an impossibility. Although acknowledging this is painful, we accept it as a frailty of human nature.

In spite of these disappointing and frustrating realizations, human beings can still count on some absolute or forever qualities. Psalm 90:2 states clearly, “Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” Additionally, Matthew 24:35 reassures us that “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”

Nancy Patrick is a retired teacher who lives in Abilene and enjoys writing