What time is it, anyway? As I try to wake up I sip on some coffee wondering just what time it is. My coffeepot tells me it’s 7:41, while my microwave believes that it’s 7:56. My cell phone reassures me that it’s 7:44, even though the hands on the clock above my sink seems convinced that it’s 10:26. I briefly entertain the idea that I’m living in some sort of limbo of fifteen minutes, but I know that there’s an explanation. My cell phone is linked up to a satellite, so that gives it some credibility. The different times on the appliances can probably be attributed to faulty programming or the age of the beaten-up machines. And the clock above the sink, well that’s been broken for some time now. The point is, however, are one of these times more correct than the others, or does it even really matter?
Time, and the way we relate to it, is a very strange phenomenon. You may think back to a day a couple of years ago and say “Feels like yesterday” even though yesterday feels like an eternity ago. It happens to me all the time. On Monday I feel as if Friday will never come, but by Friday I can’t believe how fast the week has gone by. Truth is, time is something we experience, something we perceive, and like most experiences and perceptions, it is different depending on the individual. You may have a day that seems to drag on forever, minutes seeming like hours, while for someone else in the same room the hours may fly by like minutes. Time, as we know it today, has become another institution of society, a social creation that we have learned to live by.
Many, many moons ago humanity considered time as cyclical. We would mark the progression of time by the cycles and patterns we could observe; the rise and fall of the sun, the waning of the moon, the passing of the seasons. We were in touch with the natural flow of the world, the real rhythm of time, and in this way, we had a relaxed order to the chaos of our lives. We would work for the necessities of life as we needed them and enjoy the down time together when we were content and satisfied. As our lives became more structured, more regulated, order has only resulted in more chaos. The varying religious and governing organizations began to record events that they thought to be important and, in doing so, established a past, a present, and a future. This marked a shift in our relationship with time from cyclical to linear, no longer flowing but constantly marching forward. While this understanding of time gave a sense of significance and weight to history, it also created the sense of time as a finite commodity.
As society progressed, our needs have become more complex, ever more complicated, while the time available to us has only seemed to dwindle. With so much more to do, we’ve had to take advantage of every second, literally. The clock evolved from the simplicity of the sundial to the precision of mechanical cog-driven watches. Eventually, in addition to the hour and minute hands, the second hand was added so that we can keep track of every second ticking into the future. Technology has brought precision to a whole new level with digital clocks, as now we see nanoseconds fly by. This has once again changed our relationship with time from a linear perspective to what sociologists John Robinson and Geoffrey Godbey refer to as psychological time. Time is not just a finite commodity, but one that we are quickly running out of, and as those nanoseconds continue to fly by we try to use every last one, multitasking in any way possible. We speed through drive thru fast food joints and even Starbucks while chatting on the phone, watch TV while surfing the web, diminishing our attention spans to the point where self expression is confined to 140 letter tweets and keeping in touch is now just checking Facebook for status updates. We rush through our lives as if our time is more important than everyone else’s, with little patience or understanding when there’s a traffic block or someone takes too long at the bank.
I know, because I do this too. On a recent drive to Vermont, I was stuck in traffic while merging onto the NY Thruway. Traffic was backed up all the way into the E-Z Pass lane, the FAST PASS E-Z pass lane. In this situation Dave got to witness a little bit of road rage come out. I couldn’t believe the NERVE of that traffic, slowing me to a standstill in the E-Z pass lane. However, with a deep breath I was able to regain my composure and instead of being frustrated and impatient, I enjoyed the comedic stylings of David Cross and a conversation with a good friend. I think it’s about time that we all relax and learn to go with the flow. Forget all the nanoseconds you might be wasting and give your full attention to the matter at hand. It’s a cliché, sure, but stop and smell the roses.
This has been an All Smiles Production.
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