Time is such a strange concept for me these days. The months go by like
weeks and the years seemingly like months. Even things that happened to
me not too long ago really, such as joining my amateur orchestra in
Spring 2012, even that seems to be so distant now — even though it is
not really.
There are various ways of looking at time. Perhaps the most fundamental
way, what you might call the baseline, is cosmological time. Astronomers
today tell us that the universe is about 13.82 billion years. Looking
out at the stars through the Hubble telescope is like looking at the
past. The greater the distance, the earlier the period in the evolution
of the universe we are seeing. At the current range of the Big Eyes we
are turning out into the universe, we are seeing galaxies that existed
over 13 billion years ago, which were created close to the Big Bang
itself.
But I don't know if this cosmic ruler of time applies to the way I
perceive things these days. Granted the more distant periods in my life
are usually, like the most distant galaxies, often the most dim. And
perhaps for the most part it does rather seem to be akin to that Ultra
Deep Field view of the cosmos. But that is not totally the case. Some
memories are stronger than others it seems. Psychologists say that
memory is linked to emotion, to what we value, simply to what we have
chosen to remember over the course of the years. So I don't think that a
cosmological metaphor quite fits. And for me at least it has become
rather more like what singer Regina Spektor once wrote about — "The
stars came down upon our hats / but they're just old light / they're
just old light."
But what are we to say of the fact that time flows more quickly as
we age? For that I think of the title of Thomas Wolfe's great novel,
Of Time and the River. If the river becomes a metaphor for time,
we are standing on a bridge over a small river. As we look upstream,
we see a piece of driftwood more towards us. As the driftwood disappears
under the bridge below us we run to the opposite side in time to see it
emerge and continue downstream. This perhaps could be a good metaphor
for the changes in the way we perceive time. When we are young the river
flows slowly. We see the driftwood moving toward us, it seems to take
a while before it gets to us. Running to the opposite side we see the
driftwood again as it is carried slowly away from us. It seem to take
a while for it to disappear from view. But when we are older the river
flows faster. The driftwood doesn't seem to take nearly as long to get
to us; and once it flows past it is quickly out of sight.
But while for me this may explain the rate of flow of time, it is not a
complete summary of what I experience.
Certain religions believe in the transmigration of souls — reincarnation.
And certain philosophers have believed in it also, Plato for one. As I
look back into my past I get the sense not just that I am looking back
in time, but looking — getting some sort of strong feeling of —
different lives contained within the life I have lived since my birth
in 1955. And it is not just as simple as saying, rather tritely, that
things change, that we change, "seasons change and we change with
them" as the old song by the Tourists goes. For me it is more complex.
It is what you might call a separateness of my various historical selves.
I may very well have the same interests say in music or writing that I
did when I was younger. But who I am today is not the person who was
interested in those things at age 17 or 37. No, not at all. I am here.
But the person who existed in earlier decades is only myself in the most
remote sense, it does truly seem me in a different life, and I only
minimally feel any connection to that.
If it was the same soul all these years within me — and I do believe
in the existence and continuity of the soul — then it is a soul that
has undergone some significant frequent transformations. Not just
like the universe, constantly evolving; but in the process of becoming
something — someone — new.
Time has a way of getting away from us while we snooze! :insane:
Originally posted by qlue:
If ya snooze ya lose? :p
Originally posted by gdare:
Well that would be a huge topic. I've always thought that dogs were sort of always "in the moment" in a Zen kind of way. So while their owners are away it just seems like this endless moment of misery. And when their owners are there it is always fabulous.And then of course there are the naps. I have to say I take naps these days too. ๐
Very nice post :cheers:It is not only the time but the way we perceive passing of it. When we are young, days go fast but a year lasts… somehow. When we are older, year is like a month, as you've said. It feels like yesterday when I was 30 :left:San told me that dogs and cats perceive time different than humans. For them, one hour or one day has no meaning at all, they can't tell the difference (I don't know how scientists came to that, to say the truth, but did we have to pay for that research? and the one when they've found that cat's urine glow in the dark?) :left:
๐
I feel that "differentness," too. I'm the same, but not.Well said, Edward.:heart:
Originally posted by Stardancer:
Thanks. I really wondered if I was just talking out my ass. Pardon the french. :heart: PS. I've been meaning to send you a mail for weeks now. I will try to get my stuff together. ๐
I look at my face in the mirror and count the scars. That's how I know time has passed. That other guy I used to be still lives somewhere behind those tired blue eyes, and, like the shine of the stars, his gaze meets mine via the reflective coating on that square of glass in front of me, somehow like a lense of a telescope pointing into space. I like that face. It's a comfortable and reassuring sight. It proves I'm still alive.
Thanks. Hm… A poem, perhaps. Courtesey of you, old man. Your inspiration!
Originally posted by Aqualion:
Ah that should be a post, Martin. Truly. :up:
A great essay and a pleasure to read !!Originally posted by gdare:
Perhaps Cats and Dogs have no use for time…
Except when it's time for noms… ๐
๐ very good post, Ed.I for myself could say, yes, this feeling of being the same but different and being on the way becoming someone different or new … that's pretty much how I experience time myself.so many thing, already happend some 25 years ago are very clear on my mind and memories, things that happend twoor five years ago are completely present, and so many things just having happend 3 weeks ago are gone already completely … and yet, I don't bother … the me, writing this now, is a different one from the me reading this tomorrow, but being on the way through time and times mostly aware of time passing by that's what I try to do … day by day.
Originally posted by dirkdecker:
Yes, and I can see where your own sense of time has gotten a restart what with your fairly (now) recent marriage and young Dimas. ๐
Originally posted by spryteLy:
Certainly not in the same way we do! It always gets me when I see my dog Sasha look around the room at all the stuff in it, as if she has never really seen it before. Odd. Short-term memory problem perhaps? ๐
Originally posted by gdare:
:lol::up:
Originally posted by gdare:
Bingo !!
Originally posted by gdare:
๐
Originally posted by edwardpiercy:
:up: