Thursday, January 11, 2007

Time

As a child a year seemed to last an eternity. The time from sunset on Christmas Day to sunrise of the next Christmas Day, the unit by which I measured all time, seemed almost a lifetime. A year felt long.

As an adult with children a year feels short, fleeting almost. Careful, don’t blink or you’ll miss the whole of 2007.

So what’s changed? A year is still just a year. Three hundred sixty-five days. No more, no less (well, except for those pesky leap years).

I know that I am not alone. Every parent I talk to speaks wistfully of the passage of time, of their babies turning into school age children and not having enough time with which to accomplish certain tasks.

It almost seems a cliché.

So, when does the acceleration of time stop? Does it? Will I feel that two years passed as quickly as I now feel one does when I’m seventy? Or does it start to slow down again? And why does it accelerate? Is it merely becoming an adult that triggers this change in perception or is it tied to having children?

I have no answers, only questions that bring about more questions.

8 comments:

Alexis Jacobs said...

I think it is several things. When we are kids we are worried about playing with our friends and watching the Smurfs. As an adult we have more responsibilites and life is a juggling act. So it makes time appear quicker.

Then having children makes time fly. We blink and suddenly our kids are in 5th grade and starting to think boys are cute. ((sigh))

Anonymous said...

time remains constant, humans don't. when young, we run ahead of it. when old, we run behind.if i could run faster and had fewer things to do i could catch up to time and show it a thing or two.

ask God. He created time and should know all about it.

sixty-five said...

Maybe check this out: About Time: Einstein's Unfinished Revolution
Paul Davies (See "Brain exercise")

Cate said...

That does sound interesting and readable. A good one to add to my list.

I just started C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters so this might be a very different follow-up. And I'm still very interested in bumping American Bloomsbury to the top of my list as well.

Superdad said...

Hey! That is my book and I haven't read it yet!

Cate said...

Hey! That is my book and I haven't read it yet!

Hey, you snooze, you lose.

I was cleaning up the rather LARGE pile of books accumulating on your bedside table that was becoming, AHEM, rather unsightly and found an interesting book and, since as you know, I'm currently without a book...

I'll let you know if it's any good.

Anonymous said...

footnote ...

novelist Thomas Berger wrote "killing time" in the 1970s. sophomores listen to professors who talk about the "eternal present" in philosophy 101. time warps in science fiction and lets us live today, tomorrow and yesterday. now who am i and where was i ...

Anonymous said...

I agree with the running ahead and running behind theory. Now starting this wonderful journey of parenthood, far away from my son, the passage of time is even more pronounced. I sit and watch my son grow and I'm missing so much. But, the passage of time continues and soon he'll be dating and finding a wife and making me a gramma! lol

Hope you're doing well!!

Amy