Time

This last week has been a whirlwind.  Although I typically get up early in the morning, this week I've had to get up, AND get going every day.  In the middle of all of this, I could not help but think more about time as a concept, than I usually do.  I was reminded of the 2011 movie "In Time."  The basic premise of this movie was a future state in which time had become currency, making "time" the way people are paid, and the way that people buy things.  In a strange way, I guess that is really the way things are for us today, with the things that we do either adding to or depleting the time reserve we have.  The movie has a visible timer that tells each person how long they have. While we don't have that, we do know that when we are out of time, we cease to exist.

Wow, I have to tell you that for an old woodworker from Southeast Iowa that was pretty deep.  I had to stop and get a cup of coffee.  But now, fully armed with something to drink, I can move forward again.

I remember someone telling me there is research which indicates that the speed we experience time actually does change over our life span.  When we are young, everything is new and as we create new memories that makes the experience go slower.  This really seems to make some sense to me. I remember summers when I was young that seemed to go on forever.  I remember wishing that we could go back to school because I hadn't seen my friends in such a long time.  Time really did seem to go slower.  The research goes on to indicate that in the middle part of our lives memories compress since we are generally doing the same thing over and over (like work) and that there are fewer new memories being created.  The mind "speeds" through this, giving us the illusion that time is going faster.  As with early memories, I can remember sitting on the porch at a friend's house in Kansas City talking about the fact that I felt like I had lost the 1980's and part of the 1990's.  Very quickly and intelligently, Barb pointed out to me that I was busy working on a career, and quite honestly, trying to save a company.  We failed, just by the way.

At this point, we come to the problem part of this whole theory about time and the speed at which we experience it.  The theory goes on to hold out that as we reach a more mature age, somehow the mind "knows" that we are getting closer to the end of our lives. It focuses more on the things that are happening as though each experience might be the last time that we are doing it.  So....what to do with this?  I know that as I think about this last week, there are only a handful of things that had enough impact to be truly memorable, even now, just a few days later.  I really think that the thing that I need to add to my To-Do list is to spend more time focusing on the things that I do as if they are the last time I might do them.

When we lived in Kansas City, we had an acquaintance who had been on a boat going around the Cape of Good Hope when the boat capsized.  At that point, Bill truly believed that he might be at the end of his life.  Fortunately, the boat righted itself and they completed the trip safely.  One thing I remember about Bill is that he was a great story teller. When he told stories, it was almost as if he were reliving it.  I wonder now if this is because he always felt that he had truly been given a second chance at life.

I am not sure about this, but I am picking up the gauntlet. I want to make sure my mind knows that I want to be fully engaged all of the time, and that I want to remember everything.  So, when we are around each other in the next few days and months, and I seem to be concentrating more than usual ... I am.  I am going to work diligently on filing away more memories and discarding fewer of them.  My goal is to have fewer whirlwind weeks and more memorable experiences.  

Have a great weekend.