What is time?
October 28, 2006Tonight at 3AM, i have to change the clock back to 2AM. Why then, couldn’t they do it at 3PM instead, when everyone’s still awake? What’s the point of time anyway?
Imagine this: Time standing still, but everything else still moving. Day and night would change, the seasons would change, beings grow old and die, though time stands still. That’s exactly what’s going on.
There’s only 1 moment, and that’s the moment that’s been standing still and that we all get born in, live in, and die in. The moment stands still, everything else changes. That was all fine and peacefull until a few apes had some more developed brains then others, that got out of hand and eventually it turned into humans, the most arrogant species around. Some humans still look more then apes then others.
Humans started to make things difficult for themselves, by trying to make things easy. I could go on and on, but one of the examples is the invention of time. They found out that the earth rotates around its own axis, and that it also rotates around the sun, so they called every rotation around itsself a day, and then every rotation around the sun a year. Then they started dividing it in hours, etcetera, leap days, etcetera, you know the drill. We all grow up with the idea of time, and that’s why we think there is such thing as time that moves, though it’s all in our head, and does not exist. Time is just a set of labels to label each instance of the change process of things in the world.
Often I found myself checking my wrist-watch, wondering what time it was. "oh, it’s almost 21:30, i guess i’ll be going to bed soon". "Damn, it’s 22:30 and i’m still not in bed". "Crap, it’s 01:00 and i’m still not asleep".
I stopped wearing a wrist watch about two years ago and started using my phone to check what time it is. In the beginning I often wanted to check and then changed my mind with my hand on my way to my pocket. Now I’m used to not caring what time it is, and i must say i sleep a lot better.
It really changed my relation with time. Obviously i have to check clocks occasionaly to see if food’s done, if the baby might need food, or whatever, though when i read the time the figures just mean nothing to me anymore, it’s hard to explain but wonderful to experience. And because they mean so little, I forget them straightaway. I can check a clock at 16:00, get the pizza out of the oven at 16:15 exactly, and forgotten what time i ate at 16:45. This gives an incredible sense of freedom cause i’m no longer letting the clock lead my life, though i am still in time for work and other appointments so i have the routines i need. I ate when i am hungry, sleep when i am tired, without having a clock tell me that it’s time to do some of these things.
Cause there is no such thing is time. Why would I use it if I do not believe in it?
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