4 posts tagged “time”

.. let's get this straight. Once and for all.

Spring forward.  Okay. Yes.  Check. Correct.
So, it's 2:30am now, right? 
Oh, no. 
Hang on.
My PC has automagically corrected its own time. 

So, it's really 1:30am? 
No, it can't be.  Because really whatever I think it is, it's really an hour behind what it really is. 
Hmmm.  Okay.

So, if I had gone to bed an hour ago, then I would have been fine and dandy? 
But then I wouldn't have been here to know what time it was really and I also wouldn't have realised that the time had changed. 
And I wouldn't have been able to change my clocks. 

Okaaay.  So... uhmmm.

So, what I should have done an hour ago is change my clocks, then waited for another hour and then gone to bed? 
But an hour ago wasn't really an hour ago was it?  That hour has already been and gone, to be replaced by the hour I just lost because my PC updated its time settings..
.
Eesh.  Errr.

It's enough to give a person a sleepless night. 
Or at least lose the one hour of sleep they would have gained had they changed their clock an hour ago.  Or..
Oh, hang on...I'll get it right in a moment.

Complicated business this time changing...

Being some random, rambling late night thoughts on time...
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Aside from our well-bring - our health - time is perhaps simultaneously both our most precious belonging and our most highly-valued asset.  It's also our greatest gift.

In terms of time as an asset, time is fundamental to us as a resource.  We are aware, possibly, that our time is limited, that our time is finite, that it is constantly being used up no matter what we do.  We are also aware, possibly, that our time resources are exchangeable for other resources (e.g. money) when we have a job or are self-employed or that we sacrifice those when we choose not to exchange our time in an occupational capacity. 

The relative value of time varies of course - based on the accepted value of the occupation, skills, experience, expertise and so on - but the fundamental essence of the money exchange is that it is based on usage of our time by another person or entity.  Time is the unit of measure - an hourly rate, a day rate, a monthly salary, our career earnings..  Our time is what we sell when we present ourselves to the marketplace of buyers - our employers, our customers, our clients.  In most cases, we are not able to name our price, or if we are then it is within limits.  On the other hand, how do we value our own time?  How do we balance up the monetary value of our time with what our time means to us?  Do we even do that?  Do you?.  When we "spend time" do we know what that actually means?  How do we "waste" time if it is constantly ebbing away from us anyway?

There are occasions when the exchange of time does not have a monetary rate attached to it.  We offer our time resources for other reasons. When we choose to offer assistance to someone when they need help, choose to engage in a conversation with a stranger or a neighbour or choose to give attention to family, friends or a relationship.  All of these activities represent the giving up or giving out of time as a resource without anticipation of any fiscal reward.

When we make such choices, we are also exercising judgments about how we could or should use up this valuable asset.  It sounds basic, but this notion of time is absolutely crucial.   To put it bluntly: we cannot offer our time simultaneously in many different directions, and, once that time is gone, it is gone.    It's a sad truism that people talk of "making time" for themselves as if that is somehow anachronistic to their other uses of time.  It is not - it is just the case that often we don't appreciate the intrinsic non-monetary nature of time in favour of its monetary value, or we don't recognise that time is precious and finite, and therefore we over-extend ourselves by "spending" it beyond our means.  And then we wonder why we "don't have" time to do things.  We do, it's just what we do with time, the choices we make with time, when we have time - which is now and is always now, this moment.  

Retaining clarity over what we are doing when we, for example, choose to do one thing rather than another, embraces this notion of scarcity and value and personal judgement.  By the same token, recognising what our time means to others is an important part of understanding that our time is something we can give as a gift, something we can offer as a shared resource, something we can proffer as a gesture.  As many volunteers would attest, giving time in this way also helps us to understand that having time, any time at all, is a gift and resource to ourselves too.

When we acknowledge either the selling or the giving of our time, we also accept its fundamentally finite nature. We also accept that it has a value because of this.  The value may be expressed monetarily or it may not.    When we give time, rather than sell it, we might come to understand that perhaps the non-monetary value we ascribe to our own time is much less than the non-monetary value obtained by the receiver.  Just a few minutes of time can mean so much more to another person than it could to ourselves - think of a friend in need that you could make contact with, an elderly neighbour that you could check in on, a person you can strike up a conversation with whilst waiting for the bus or out for a walk, and so on.  That is where the true value of time shines through:  when one person's time is highly valuable to another person simply because by giving it one expresses care, concern and connection.  Even community. 

Time.  Recognise its value and finite nature, use it wisely, but give of it generously.  To yourself and to others. 
Time truly is the essence and of the essence.

Ever since time began, Man has been preoccupied with it.  Before then, no-one was really bothered about it.  In fact, no-one had really noticed its existence until a Doctor's Receptionist hit upon the idea during a dull Tuesday afternoon during which there had been several missed appointments.  And so it was that time began, and Life On Earth was never to be the same again.  One might actually go as far as to say that it had, in fact, changed. 

From the earliest rudimentary cave drawings to the literary heavyweights such as H.G. Wells.
From the early attempts to capture, then weigh and ultimately to anatomically dissect time to the 1984 hit single for Cyndi Lauper.
It would be fair to say that time has obsessed us.  We've spent a lot of time on it, actually.

Within that obsession there is a greater obsession - the obsession of time travel.  It has fascinated generations, reaching a crescendo of fascinivity in recent times.  However, any prospect of such time-perverting cavorting through history was dealt a severe blow when it was proved that a controversial 1985 documentary - in which a teenager, Marty McFly, seemingly proved he could in fact pass through time - was in fact a cruel and sadistic hoax.  There are many who have attempted to continue the teenager's work, but for now we are still trapped inconsolably by the passage of time. 

The possibility of travelling back and forth through time has captured the public imagination in a way not imaginable before (at least since pop socks or the Troll).  It must, however, be stated that much of the fascin has been with the aesthetic and cosmetic side of the time continewum.  This is epitomised by the search for eternal youth or at least a means to hold back time to prevent the catastrophic effects of ageing (primarily death, but also forgetfulness, leisure suits, penchant for easy listening music and the human body's saggage and wrinklage). Perhaps Cher expressed it best in 1989 when she sang:  "If I could turn back time / I would change my face".  I think so.

So, imagine a product that could indeed protect against time. 
No, I mean, really - imagine a product that could indeed protect against time. 
Fanciful, isn't it?  Well - according to Colgate - "No, it is not".. and it comes in a tube.  A bit like one of those...never mind.

I give you...

Timecontrol

And in tomorrow's resumption of this post I will ponder about the world of advertising and make some potentially libellous claims about Friday afternoons in the offices of the Advertising Standards Authority after a few beers have been consumed at lunchtime.  Possibly.  If I have time.  But, hey... waaaiiiiiit, a minute... what if...

"The-time-is-two-fourteen--p-m", said the watch.

Put that ever-so-slightly disconcerting synthetic female voice through a reverb and you'd scare many a schoolchild to death.  Put a hi-hat, kick and snare to it and you might have those same schoolchildren downloading a ringtone of it in their droves.  I amused myself by selecting numbers and pressing the time adjustment button in syncopation, like some early techno or some later bad commercial techno.  "The-time-is... the-...the-...the-the-...the-time-is... 1..2..3..4".  No-one noticed I was doing this of course.  Not even my mum who is quite used to my ways.

My grandfather has always been an old man to me. In my earliest intelligible memories he was already retired from his job as a testing engineer at Rolls Royce, and well into his 60s.  At the time he probably would have been referred to as an older man.  The transition from older man to elderly man and now to frail elderly man has taken place over my entire life time.  He is now in his mid-90s, me in my later 30s. 

The irony of relative time and the passage of it.   How do we mark time passing?  Where are the milestones by the side of the road?  Do chapters in our lives create their own time zones?  I pondered these things as I attempted to adjust the time on his talking watch and amuse myself with its robotic tones. My grandfather's deteriorated eyesight means that the digital numerals on the face are devoid of any use whatsoever but clearly he still finds it important to know what time of day it is.  I was going to ask why, but I felt that I already had asked one too many stupid question.  Why would he need an alarm setting?

It seems that I am the only person who has figured out how to set the watch - I guess the manual disappeared a long time ago and I somehow figured out the correct combination of buttons to press in order to get it into setup mode.  From time to time I am called upon to remind myself of how I did it and then do it again.  It felt good to be of use, anyway.

I was quiet on the way home.  I am usually quiet after visiting my grandparents.  And my parents are usually quiet after visiting my grandparents.  Discussions had taken place. Time was at the centre of them.  "Now is the time...".  "There will come a time..."   "It's time they....".  "It's only a matter of time..."

I stared out the window and took in the countryside, the bright skies and the beginnings of some greenery in the hedges that we scurried past.  I was tired.  I hadn't slept well again. But, just perhaps, during that morning time had caught up with me a little bit too.

"Alarm off"
"Alarm on"