“Try to imagine a life without timekeeping. You probably can’t. You know the month, the year, the day of the week. There is a clock on your wall or the dashboard of your car. You have a schedule, a calendar, a time for dinner or a movie. Yet all around you, timekeeping is ignored. Birds are not late. A dog does not check its watch. Deer do not fret over passing birthdays. Man alone measures time. Man alone chimes the hour. And, because of this, man alone suffers a paralyzing fear that no other creature endures. A fear of time running out.” Beautiful words by Mitch Albom from his book ‘The time keeper’.
I still wonder who created the concept of time.And what a space it takes in our lives! All of us in our day today lives use the phrase “ I don’t have time… !” (And yes, I know we genuinely mean it) We all understand what a person wants to say when he/she says that. But, another immediate deeper sense feels very amused at this phrase. – “So, since when did I start owning time ??” This is an immediate response that I get. Time and again, when I have some time I delve deeper into this thought (Hahahaha yes paradox;)). Today is one such day! So, •Since when did I start owning time ! When did it start ?
I guess from childhood when my parents were training me to be a child (;) yeah another paradox).
Early memories of my introduction to the concept of time was as – breakfast time, lunch time, dinner time, sleep time, wake up time, shower time.. etc Then, I guess everything became time bound. New categories continued to be added – School time, studies time, tv time, play time (my favorite), exam time, free time. Whew.. it started getting more and more complicated and expanded In terms of categories as I started growing up. Now I have yoga time, class time, practice time, rest time, family time, friends time, hobby time,….I don’t have time. …..wow list seems endless.
•We have added so many categories to time but does it exist? If yes as what ? No, I am not going into the physics (not even with the Google definitions) I know it’s an important quantity of measurement and somehow without time as measurement, our phyics would be literally crippled(we will be literally in a black hole, I think I am ok with being on Earth right now 😉 ). I am not even denying time’s importance. But in daily life we don’t think S= D/T. I am more dissecting the psychological concept of time and our adding an identity and giving it a material existence. Seriously, I am not getting any answer here. If I delete the categories from it I don’t know what it is. May be just a tool to describe some situation or event that happened or happens. For eg I may like to have my lunch at 1:30 pm sharp and do everything possible to complete that task/ritual, but I can’t order my body to go to toilet at 3:36pm sharp (oops but true). Actually body don’t really follow the concept of time that we have created. I don’t think time ( as we know it ) exists for our body.
•If it’s existence is not really necessarily for our body to function then for whom it’s important? Who needs it ? Yes first answer for some of us who are well into spiritual literature/ path would be – mind/ego. But let’s dissect it more.
-Is it a human need to quantify everything ?
For eg – How much you love me ??:/ Phew, I seriously get confused when I meet this question.
-Fear of something endless or not having boundaries ? Yeah I mean it, I still wonder when we fear death, if it’s really fearing end of life (as we know it) or if it’s a fear of starting something which seems endless (as we assume it).
– This concept of time creates a false sense of control on events and on life. For eg in next 5 years I’ll will do this and this ..and this and …all planned!
What if God decides to shut down Earth because of it being a low profit project …ever thought of that? 😉
– Possessing something feels empowering ~ My time, your time, our quality time( this one is the best ) ! 😀
• What if we delete the word time from our dictionary? Now this looks like more destructive thought than what I thought. As I am thinking it, it’s making me go blank. So many boundaries are falling… Is it JUST A HABIT ?….. I am going to stop here now, part of the reason is that my mental energies are depleted NOW and partly that it is my tea time NOW 😀 I’ll think time some other time again, when I have time! I’ll stick with NOW right NOW!:)
Kanika Gupta