Sunday 11 January 2009

Time is an Illusion

A definition of Time is The inevitable progression into the future with the passing of present events into the past. Interesting. My (and my brother's for that matter) Mum used to say that the concept of time was man-made. This, however, is not really the place to start that debate and I merely included the statement because it came to mind.

Anyway yesterday morning time, man-made or otherwise, certainly came to mind. I rose later than usual (because I woke later than usual). I put the washing machine on and then followed my usual morning routine of switching on the kettle and Palin (my laptop who circles the world with me), attended to my ablutions and so on. After my two cups of green tea with lemon and emails I looked at the clock and saw that it was 0750. It did strike me as slightly odd because I thought I'd risen at about 0655 and seemed to have spent a lot more than an hour on my computer, putting out washing and doing 'morning' things. As I didn't have to be out until 0930 I got on with the ironing and went back to the computer where I realised that the time was, in fact, 0925. The clock's battery had lost power and although the clock had not stopped it had slowed down to a snail's pace.

Now losing an hour all of a sudden shouldn't really be a major issue in one's life but I have to say that the loss of that hour played havoc with my mental time-clock for the rest of the day. For the record I was out of the house by 0930!

OK so all that was a bit of an irelevant ramble but I thought I'd share it with you so that I could include a picture of my clock and the saying under it which was in my Christmas stocking.

5 comments:

  1. You think you have (had) problems. I put my pill holder back in the wrong order when I last filled it. As a result last Thursday became Friday and vice versa. By the time this morning (Saturday here, Sunday where you are) came around I didn't even know which week I was in...

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  2. Time, as your Mother correctly said, is man-made. It didn't exist until the railway when people needed to have a standard measurement, so that if a train left London at 9am people knew when it would get to its destination.

    When do cows need milking? When they need milking. Time only matters if you are expecting the collection man at a certain time.

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  3. I think it should, in fact, be illusion not allusion.

    (one of) your pedantic pal(s)

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  4. You are, of course, correct. Anyone who can write a cinquain is bound to be! Thank you. I have altered the heading accordingly.

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  5. When God made time he made plenty of it. Man spoiled it by measuring it.

    Time is also the measure of change.

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