Trying to fully understand the concept of “time” is like trying to hold a gallon of water in your bare hands – try as you might, it just isn’t going to happen. For us humans, time isn’t a constant. Rather, the “length” of our seconds, minutes, hours, days and even years keeps changing as we move on from one activity to the next and from one stage of our lives to the next.
In the mind of a child, a person’s lifetime lasts for eons. The first decade of life seems to last forever, with birthdays coming along at a snail’s pace and that coveted age of sixteen (when they’ll finally be able to drive) lying so far into the future that they doubt if they’ll ever reach it. But eventually, against all odds, they become teenagers…
Back in my high school days, I was a good student who truly enjoyed learning, but some of my classes lasted for what seemed like an eternity. I would just sit there, watching the hands on that big round clock move slower than a slug swimming through cold molasses, the boring teacher just going on and on about some boring topic that held no interest for me whatsoever.
But then the classes that I really enjoyed - like science and history – were always over before I knew it. Of course in reality they all lasted the same length of time: 55 minutes. But those 55 minute segments of the school day were like an accordion, getting longer and shorter as the classes changed.
And then came the army… talk about a warped sense of time! Let me tell you, I spent an entire year at Fort Bragg, NC one summer. No, I take that back – it wasn’t a year, it was more like two! That had to be the hottest, most miserable place this country boy has ever been, and the vast majority of my time there was spent way out in the woods where there was nothing but sand, pine trees, mosquitoes, and ticks galore. And to top it all off, the daytime temperatures hovered around 100 degrees and the humidity at night was high enough to make an ice cube sweat (not that we ever saw any)! I thought those eight weeks were going to last right into the next century.
As we get older the years get shorter and shorter. I have come to realize that human lifetimes and time in general aren’t linear as the clock and calendar would have us believe. Birthdays that used to come once every three or four years now come in batches, and I have somehow managed to jump right from my 20′s into middle age.
Well, thanks for reading these silly ramblings of mine. Be sure to check back in a couple of months and I’ll let you know how things are going at the retirement center…