Friday, December 20, 2013

A Christmastime Thought


The old saying about time seeming to pass faster the older one gets must have some truth to it – the relativistic nature in modern physics seems to apply to older people without impacting the younger folks.  How else can I explain of how Christmastime has sneaked up on me so fast this year?  Here it is December 20th and I have not started any preparations for the holidays.  I thank the powers that be, the internet and online shopping from keeping me from being considered by my family as the “Grinch.”  I am looking forward to family get-togethers, feasting on my sisters’ tamales, cookies, breads and other great treats and to enjoy watching the faces of excitement and expectation in the faces of the little ones.  I have to admit, I’m getting into it myself now, and listening to Christmas music is still nice (it has not become the annoying noise it usually is by this time of year), piñata construction has begun and I feel light on my feet.

But the perception of time “flying” faster and faster as I get older bothers me a little.  I could argue that it is relative to aging:  For my eleven year-old, one year is almost 10% of his entire life.  For me, however, on year is only 1.5% of my life.  So does that mean that time is going almost seven times faster for me?  In his “Principles of Psychology” in the late 1800s, William James indicated that people measure time by memorable events such as the first kiss, the first day of school, the fist family vacation, etc., and that the lack of “new” experiences at an older age causes days, weeks and months to smooth out and the differentiation of time seems to speed up because the years “grow hollow and collapse.”  So is the trick to slowing the perception of time is to keep looking and doing new things?  Hmmm… I wonder, would the first social security check, the first retirement, the first loss of a friend or relative to old age count?

I have noticed however that as I aged I have paid less attention to time.  I stopped keeping a schedule in my job over 15 years ago.  I stopped using an alarm clock over 25 years ago, I don’t even own a watch and the only time I know what time it is, is from my smart phone and my computer.  There is a neighbor in our street that has a large digital Christmas sign that is a clock counting down the days, hours, minutes and seconds till Christmas.  My son always wants me to slow down when I drive by their house and he faithfully counts down the days until Christmas.  My main concern is not counting time my concern is directed to specific tasks:  getting to work, showering and shaving, taking out the garbage, paying bills; all repetitive event-directed activities that where the passage of time is not a factor.  So, is time going faster because I no longer measure it or care for it? 

Maybe as we age, we enter a “warp filed” and go in and out of a parallel universe that seems to be in sync with this one and where the laws of physics, including time, are different.  If true, warping in and out of the two universes has definitely affected my way of thinking. We care about different things from people of pre-retirement age; visions of sugar plums do not dance in our heads, it’s more like visions naps, warm feet and soft pajamas; visions of getting to the bathroom on time, visions of communicating old memories and experiences to the children and grandchildren.  Sugar plums are the last thing on my mind.  Maybe as we age we look for time to go backwards to our old experiences and in doing so we forget to measure its passage:  We “warp” out into the parallel universe and when we “warp” back in time has already gone by and it seems to have passed faster.

So, I would like to leave you with a Christmas wish before I warp out of this universe and into my time-less universe and forget that we are in the Christmas season of the year:  As this year comes to a close and as we start the New Year, I hope we all stop and reflect the wonderful benefits of family, set goals to seek harmony with nature, cultivate curiosity for truth and enhance our quest for a purity of conscience.  Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

Rafael

No comments:

Post a Comment