Question

"…I [was] eager to escape backward again, to be off to invent a past for the present." –The Rose Rabbi by Daniel Stern Present: pres·ent Something that is offered, presented, or given as a gift. Let’s stick with this definition. Unusual presents, accidental presents, metaphorical presents, re-gifted presents, etc. — pick any present you have ever received and invent a past for it.

Answer 1

In this question, we are asked to pick a gift we have received and invent a past for the item.

An example could be a ring that your mother is giving you, and which is passed down to all the girls in your family. Such a ring would be considered a family heirloom, and it is likely that it is so deeply appreciated because of the story behind it.

For example, maybe your grandma already owned the ring when she came to the United States. Another example would be that maybe your grandparents were very poor and the ring represented a big sacrifice. Regardless of the specifics of a story, it is important to remember that the more we learn about a gift, the more likely we are to appreciate it.

Answer 2

A given present to invent a past about could be a diary. A diary given at the age of 12 years old. The first diary given to someone, to write about the past and at the same time to create it.

Step-by-step explanation:

Creating or inventing a diary´s past is a way of killing or playin with time. A diary is made to write about the past, but at the same time it creates a new reality because what is written is only a recreation of what supposedly happened.

This diary's was a present given to a person, and this person never knew how much that would change her. Shelearned to put into written words what ever she lived, and it helped the person recreat the past and the present, or even invented.

This present was given to this person to recreate past, to made it up every time. It was a present to write about the past, and at the same time writting about it made it present in time.

In this text the use of present is taken in at least three meanings: present as time, present as a gift, and as a metaphor of recreating something and make it actual.