TIME

               With each tick of the second hand on the clock it passes.  We’re told that time stands still for no man.  And that is certainly true.  It seems that in all things it is the one constant that never ends, but it is continually moving forward.  It is true that for us, as individuals time does end.  We spend each day of our lives, hopefully, spending our time doing the best that we can under the circumstances that exist.  However, who of us truly understands the concept of time?

               It seems that the longer in time we exist the more difficult it is to define.  When we are young children it seems that most often time is our worst enemy.  Waiting for something to happen in a week or two takes an eternity to arrive.  But, we know the older we get, time truly becomes our enemy because the days, months, and even years fly by as if they were nothing.

                I recall a high school history teacher I had.  Maybe you remember those 1950s and 1960s big round classroom clocks that they had hanging on the walls.  She had placed a sign which hung from the clock that read: “Time will pass.  Will you?”  I can’t actually remember how many times I starred at that clock (and that sign) and wondered the answer to that question in my case.  Now I’m at the age where I’ll start to discuss something that has happened.  I’m sure it was only a year or two ago, maybe three or four?  AT THE MOST! My wife will correct me and let me know that it had actually been more like TEN years ago!  You truly begin to understand the expression “time flies!”

                But there are other expressions that really are not true.  “A watched pot never boils.”  In actuality a pot of water WILL always boil in the same amount of time under the same conditions whether you are watching it or not.  But, of course, it’s all a matter of perspective.  Yet, considering ALL things we really can’t wrap our heads around time!

                Some say that time is like a straight line.  There is a beginning at one end and the finish at the other end.  We can view our lives in this manner.  We have a beginning, our birth.  And we have an end, our death.  Every day of our life we are moving along the line, at a point called the present.  This concept postulates that the point, the present, is constantly moving forward.  Therefore, there could never be traveling from the present to the past or the future.  Others think our lives might be more like an old phonograph record that plays from beginning to end by means of a needle arm (the present).  You could therefore “pick up” the needle arm (the present) and place it at other points within the stream of time (the record).  However, if we follow this scenario we could see that, even then, the record would still play whatever was at the previous or future point as it had done every other time.  There could therefore be NO changing of the past or the future.  With quantum physics and other science theories being developed who knows what may be presented in the future postulation of time?

                As the old Jim Croce (1973) song used to state “If I could save time in a bottle.”  Yes, as we get older we perceive the diminishing quantity of that precious commodity of time.  Regardless of our age, our status in life, our economic standing, or any other measure of comparison we’d like to use, we all have ONLY twenty-four hours in a day and seven days in a week.  So, in the sense of looking at “the big picture”, it’s not the time we have, but what we do with that time.  Let’s not be foolish with our time, but make wise use of it!  We can only hope for the best, because we’re only human!

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"Why does it take some people so long

to tell you they're speechless!"