Time Is Running Out Or Is It?
A good discussion, spirited and wide ranging on the subject of time last night…… No final solution was offered to what is not a problem. Comment was made that time is a feature of language, and a feature of conscious awareness of ourselves within a world. Time is closely related to change, and we would be unable to articulate our experience of change without terms of time. Does the mind simply make up time, form linguistic tools in order to edit out features of experience unrelated to our preferred story line? We do all of that, but what we mean by time is more than something so amorphous, fully subject to our manipulation. The world external to our minds is ruled by time. Geological time and biological time are obviously different. Living things become, mature, age and die within a short time frame. The Rocky Mountains on the other hand are quite old. But they too will pass.
The brute fact of passage, and the contemplation of passage as a metaphor are enduring themes of art. Any journey from point A to point B takes time. Our “journey” through life for each of us is a story uniquely textured, one which is different with every telling/interpretation.
Here is a song from the early days of Rock n Roll, 1964. What a story each of the members of The Rolling Stones could tell of their life and time. Enjoy!
8 thoughts on “Time Is Running Out Or Is It?”
Descending
From five miles up,
brown hardscrabble land
feigns a tranquil glamor,
as metal roofed shacks
glisten with a diamond’s fire,
and weathered remnants of
once majestic mountains,
now eaten by rain, cover the ground
like giant rough-textured sheets.
I understand how we stay aloft,
the dynamics of air on wing,
but I still wonder;
if the air grew tired
and felt enough was enough,
would the ground beckon.
Would rocks call out,
“We have been waiting for you
longer than we can remember.”
In those last few moments
I would not curse the air
for growing tired,
I am weary as well.
I would not blame the rocks
for wanting company,
they too know sorrow,
or at least I want to believe they do.
In the end, the ephemeral nature
of nature itself is revealed.
Just as rivers fill with mud
of the great mountains’
inevitable return to the sea,
so will the deeds of men erode.
And all that counts is now.
YES. All that we have is now.
The division of time into seconds, hours, days, years, etc. is certainly manmade for time has no divisions except its beginning and its end. We humans found it necessary to divide the indivisible because we needed a context for our own lives and we needed a way to grasp this flow within the timeframe of birth to death. The perception of this flow is also relative since fleeting moments can seem to take years and years can pass in a moment. So, Mr. Administrator, as lyrics of songs are an integral part of this blog, helping us understand the nuances of our place in the universe, here’s one recorded by Peter & Gordon from many years ago called:
The Land of Oden
In the land of Oden,
there stands a mountain,
One thousand miles in the air.
From edge to edge,
this mountain measures
One thousand miles square.
A little bird comes a-wingin’,
Once in every million years or so,
And sharpens his beak on that mountain,
Then swiftly disappears.
And when that mountain has worn away,
This to eternity shall be as one single day.
This is a fine lyric indeed! According to Buddhist sensibility time and eternity are coextensive. Nirvana is samsara, and vise versa.
Last evenings discussion also gave me a new idea about time. I now don’t see time as anything that moves, but I feel we move through it, but that is not to be confused with the ether that was once thought to be the medium for light to travel through. As we walk across the surface of the Earth we are moving over it’s unmoving surface. So too I think with time, it is static and we are moving through it. Hmmmmm…?
I like the thought that it is we who move. Consciousness, the mind, is always in motion. I believe that is a sound assumption. Movement is relative. Perspective, angle of view gives rise to a manner of speaking…… And so it goes.
If the ubiquitous tree falls in the forest, it makes a sound regardless of whether any human is nearby. The sound waves the emanate from the snapping of branches reverberate agains surrounding objects and then dissipate into the air. The same is true of time. We interpret the moments that pass and name them as time, but light still travels from point A to point B regardless of whether we are there to see it or record it. At the moment point B is reached, the universe is older, closer to the end of its life. That is universal time. Perhaps we do move through time, but time also moves through us, it permeates everything and leaves nothing unaltered.
Well said. Our time is finite, and therefore priceless.