Time
Time is a concept that we fail to evaluate on a regular basis, and if we do, we only become frustrated with its actions. Time is something that can fall short, not move quick enough, deliver kinks in our plans, and constrain parts of our lives. Time has a bad attitude and transcends our ability of control. Our main focus as a society is that time is of the essence. This means time does not offer itself in abundance, but it offers only what it can. There is a strong desire to feel like we have more time when we need it and there is a strong desire to evaporate time when we don’t. Time makes us age. Is there really a way to come to terms with time? Whether we do or we don’t, time will move on.
When we consider time, it is slotted in a “need to use” basis. Scheduling is a basic part of our lives. Scheduling is a strength that people use to get ahead in life. It is something that we list on resumes, or post on walls. Even those who have the luxury of not strictly needing to follow time still cannot escape scheduling to live a healthy life. Eating, sleeping, drinking, going to the bathroom. These things are all scheduled. Maybe not with a day planner, but our body schedules them for us. Time passes and our bodies feel these needs. The infliction of time on our physical selves pushes us to schedule. We need to use time, because time forces us to need.
Time can disappoint us. What is the one thing we are constantly told never to do? Never look back. If we aren’t looking back, we are forced only to look forward. Never mind the present, because there is no present. You are always looking towards your next step, and only evaluating what has already happened. So while we try to not dwell on the past, here we are looking forward. The inflicted goal is giving ourselves something to look forward to. Constantly looking forward can be a dangerous game. I do not wish to see a world where pessimists walk rampant and hope to never fulfill expectations, but as a result of time, and our inability to predict the future, looking forward can cause hurt when the moment passes. I do not suggest setting low expectations though, because time can also satisfy us.
We measure the speed of time by years, months, days, hours, minutes, and seconds. Or do we? Maybe we measure time by events, occurrences, delays, improvements, and movements. There are pieces of time that can even be defined by pieces of music or literature that had an impact on our lives. If we don’t use these things, then we are a slave to the clock, time’s evil vendor. The clock deals out time to those who watch it, and never gives any more, or any less. So why give it the pleasure? The clock strikes against us, so we can strike back by measuring our time in pinnacles. Captain James Hook didn’t like the sound of a ticking clock, and neither should you. The ticking of the clock is merely a slicing of the only gift that is truly given at birth; time.
Time has a way of making us feel like we have lost control. Where has the time gone? Why is this taking so long? There are moments in our lives where we would like to stretch them as long as we could. As we sit on a beach under the warm sun drinking a cool drink or stand at the base of a lake that winds into two touching mountains, in that moment we want the daylight to last forever. We take some solace in the sunset and bank the memory. We use that memory for comfort, all the while knowing that time has left it behind and left us as well.
The same goes for those moments where we want to escape. Maybe it is an awkward social situation, or a forced activity that produces boredom. We wish to evaporate time, and then down the line wonder why it has passed by so quickly. These are the things that we do not bank in our memory, and that is why it feels like they flew by, when at that time, we were trying to push them.
The worst punishment that time delivers is aging. Time will deliver you. There is no way to avoid the aging process. Time makes us old. As a child we float aimlessly, not concerned with reality. As we enter young adulthood we wish to be adults, because no one understands. As we become adults we wish we had our youth. Then time gives us the elderly stages, where a good life can be had, but where aging becomes more dangerous.
I would not wish to live forever. There is a piece of everyone that remains on this earth once they have gone, but while they are here, time will always be the enemy. Whether you wish to move forward or move back, time will not let you do so at an accelerated rate. It will move you forward at the pace with which it steps, and slowly age you. It is possible that there are some who would thank time for the gift that it has given. When we reach for solace we acknowledge that there is some thanks for time on this earth. It is the lack of grace time allows us, however, that does not receive a gesture of positivity.
So how do we cope with time? Our need for time, our measurement of time, our control of time; this is a constant battle within society. Those who are content with the way time treats them are content with how they spend their time, and how much they leave behind in the moments that passed by. There are so many facets of life it becomes difficult to comprehend a lifestyle where there is not a single moment wasted or squandered. There are too many moving parts and too many ticking hands waiting for us to take a misstep.
Today may be wasted. The key, in my opinion, is remembering who you will be tomorrow. Tomorrow; not having a moment or expectation of looking forward too, but being thankful there is another day. Tomorrow you will still be relatively the same age, tomorrow you will have a chance to redeem yourself, tomorrow you will get to be a better person or make a better life. Tomorrows are the only thing that time can offer. When the sun goes down and the wolves howl at the moon, it is not time saying “I put one away on you again”, it is time saying, “tomorrow will be yours.”
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