I've had an 'I’m wondering...' mini-series going on here for some time now (follow the link by the same name, if interested).
Lately, I've been wondering about time. I’m wondering...does the speed of time change? Scientifically, the answer seems like an easy ‘no, of course not’.
But, you don’t have to talk to very many to hear a common refrain, life at times can feel like it really speeds up.
This weekend, I spent some time with my 2 1/2 yr old grandson. We went on a walk. He found lots of things that interested him — sticks, seeds, water, mud. He used a stick to hit the trunk of a tree (dozens of times). He saw some workers digging a hole; and watched and watched, and watched some more. He found a mud puddle and sat down in it, rubbing his hands in the mud. And, then he four a unique-looking seed pod and pushed it around in the puddle...for what felt like a long time to me, but not to him.
Time had no pace. He had no place to go. I really didn't either.
I made a mental note; how different this pace is than that of most of my days.
When I talk to my parents, who are in their late 70s, I get the impression their sense of time is more like by grandson's.
In other words, on the edges of life — in the beginning and perhaps towards the end — time seems much slower than it does in the middle.
When time feels fast to us, what is happening? Does it really have anything to do with time? Or, is this about something else?
If time is constant (is it?), what is the difference in our experience with it? Why can it feel like it changes, at different points in our lives? And, what about the moral quality we can so often attached to the use of time? I'm wondering....
