time flying
Time is so subjective.
When I was seven years old and would wake up on a Saturday morning, that day of play lasted forever. And then I had another day, Sunday, put those two days together it was like a mini-vacation. But of course Monday morning meant a long long trek until the next Saturday, back then.
When I was eighteen years old, a week was short, but a semester took a long time. There were frat parties and innumerable classes and midterms and latenight cram sessions and by the time final exams arrived it felt like that semester was never-ending.
Now, the years fly by almost faster than I can watch. It has been over two years since my friend Howard died and in one way it feels like maybe it was two months. Next Friday is the 20th anniversary of Black Monday, but it couldn't have been that long since then? 20 years?
Time moves at different rates, depending. I think I now know a few ways to trick the perception of time's passage. See, I'd like to live a lot longer. My genes support this desire, much of my family lives into their nineties. But I want each moment to count, too. That is the essence of one trick. Live in the moment, completely. The more you live in the past, the more you don't notice the now. The more you factor the future in your thoughts, the more you are looking ahead, the faster the present appears to pass.
Another trick is to live in pain. For the last number of years, I have had painful realities. I notice that dealing with pain directly slows up time, sometimes very much so. An hour of pain lasts much longer than an hour of comfort.
A third trick is to do boring things. Do activities that don't excite you, that positively bore you, and the time will usually seem slower.
So, if you live in the moment, experience pain, and do boring things, time really seems to pass quite slowly.
This is one compelling set of reasons why I am looking forward to the nomination and election of Al Gore.
When I was seven years old and would wake up on a Saturday morning, that day of play lasted forever. And then I had another day, Sunday, put those two days together it was like a mini-vacation. But of course Monday morning meant a long long trek until the next Saturday, back then.
When I was eighteen years old, a week was short, but a semester took a long time. There were frat parties and innumerable classes and midterms and latenight cram sessions and by the time final exams arrived it felt like that semester was never-ending.
Now, the years fly by almost faster than I can watch. It has been over two years since my friend Howard died and in one way it feels like maybe it was two months. Next Friday is the 20th anniversary of Black Monday, but it couldn't have been that long since then? 20 years?
Time moves at different rates, depending. I think I now know a few ways to trick the perception of time's passage. See, I'd like to live a lot longer. My genes support this desire, much of my family lives into their nineties. But I want each moment to count, too. That is the essence of one trick. Live in the moment, completely. The more you live in the past, the more you don't notice the now. The more you factor the future in your thoughts, the more you are looking ahead, the faster the present appears to pass.
Another trick is to live in pain. For the last number of years, I have had painful realities. I notice that dealing with pain directly slows up time, sometimes very much so. An hour of pain lasts much longer than an hour of comfort.
A third trick is to do boring things. Do activities that don't excite you, that positively bore you, and the time will usually seem slower.
So, if you live in the moment, experience pain, and do boring things, time really seems to pass quite slowly.
This is one compelling set of reasons why I am looking forward to the nomination and election of Al Gore.