Many philosophers hold that time is an illusion. I hold that time is real--the unit
of measure for intervals between sequential events. We live in an ever flowing river of time, ever existing in three of its dimensions--present, future, and past. For example driving in your auto, the space you are passing is the present;
looking through the windshield you see the future approaching: glancing into your rear view mirror you see the past receding.
There are many versions of time, of more common variety than Relativity.
There is the perception of time--"Time flies when you are having fun, and drags when
you are having trauma". Or the time it takes to drive to a previously untraveled
destination seems longer than the return.
Time controls our lives. We live in a rhythm of schedules. It influences how we interact with our fellows. For example, if someone wishes to communicate with Marty
they click on his name in their cell phone and in seconds a long string of digits
separates Marty from all the other Martys, locates and rings him. Compare that to the Pony Express.
Time also dictates our success in life. One person says I don't have the time to
acquire new skills to enhance my performance. Another says I devote most of my free time to learning new skills required for me to increase my earning power. It even
influences our health and lifespan if we spend it in healthy pursuits.
Time can be a master, friend and ally, or foe. Use it wisely---you only get a
limited ration of it.
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2 comments:
I think TIME has become more important than politics or religion as a topic for conversation.
In some cultures it is believed that each of us is born with a finite life span predetermined by some higher power. In most societies children are taught to make the most of time for their own good as well as the benefit of the society. For this reason I suggest that "time" is a measurement of work.
Surely humans are the only creatures foolish enough to give time so much significance. As you point out, we have become addicted to the power we have given to it and in doing so we have also become it's slave.
The washing machine is sometimes considered to be amongst the first "time savers" of the industrial era but then we added more clothes to our collection. We "saved time" but also increased our burden of needing to wash clothing.
Before we began efforts of defining and controlling time it was enough to simply shove a stick into the ground. The stick's shadow informed us of the period during the day as well as the season of the year. Work still needed to be done but that stick helped us forecast how soon the work would need to be completed.
Consider some of the following cliche quotations...
When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure
-Peter Marshall
If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favourable.
-Seneca
Sometimes we stare so long at a door that is closing, that we see too late the one that is open.
-Alexander Graham Bell
Work spares us from three evils: boredom, vice, and need.
-Voltaire
I am only one, but still I am one
I cannot do everything
but still I can do something
and because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
-Helen Keller
Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today.
-James Dean
Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.
-Will Rogers
It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, "Always do what you are afraid to do."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.
-Samuel Johnson
About ten years back, I flew on a 747 equipped with additional gas tanks from Australia back to the USA.
Without the need of a stopover in Hawaii to refuel, the plane arrived in Los Angeles at my watch a few hours before leaving Sydney.
Jacques
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