I'm working at home and freezing. It can't be more than 60 in here, which wouldn't be so bad if I was moving, but sitting and typing just isn't cutting it. I just bought a space heater online, but I would really prefer that 3-5 days be 3-5 minutes. Yeah, so I'm a member of the instant-gratification generation.
Just a thought on the relativity of time to age. It's a common observation that time seems to move faster the older you get. I don't dispute that, but I don't think it holds up with smaller slices of time or stays directly proportional to age. If you are not already bored with this, read on ...
For example, it's easy to accept that because a year is 1/5 of a five-year old's life, and less than 1/80 of an octogenarian's, a year feels longer to the kid. But does it really seem 16 times longer to the 5 year old? Even if that were so, does it hold true for a month, a day, a minute? I recently had someone argue that it does, but that seems ridiculous. This would imply that all perception of the speed of passing time uses an individual's time of birth as a frame of reference. Is the internal awareness you have of the passing of time always viewed in the context of your entire lifetime? Sounds absurd to me. We all know the truth of the cliche "time flies when you're having fun," so the perception of time is clearly affected by events independent of our age, and I'd venture to say that an hour for the old lady sitting in the chair at the nursing home is not all that much shorter than the hour the grounded 10-year old spends staring at the ceiling in his room.
What really clarifies the picture, though, is to ponder how an eternity affects your view. A million years from now, the proportional theory becomes plain silly. I think it's interesting, though, that to one who has already lived an eternity, not only is "a thousand years as one day," but "one day is ... as a thousand years." (2 Pe 3:8) So time can seem slower too? I'm curious how my perspective will change.
"Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see
It's getting hard to be someone but it all works out, it doesn't matter much to me
... Nothing is real, and nothing to get hungabout
Strawberry Fields forever." - The Beatles
Yes, I agree. Time is interpreted by events, not age. But also, by perception of events.
Take a public talk. If you go into that with the wrong attitude (listening that is) it can seem to take forever. However, (hmmm... that sounded funny) if you go to the hall, excited about the talk, the speaker, or the fact that you know the information and it makes sense, the time can go by rather quickly. Same goes for the Watchtower study. An unstudied WT meeting is slower than when you study for it. (Or read... that always moves things along.)
Posted by: M Kenyon at February 12, 2004 06:53 AM