Time

It’s not only the end of the year, this time it’s also the end of a decade. We’re moving into the 2020s. The 1920s were filled with forbidden booze, rebellious flappers, gangsters and tommy guns. They were roarin’ and people were living large. People now look back and romantise the 1920s, host big 20s themed parties, and imitate the styles. But the 1920s directly led the US into the great market crash and the Great Depression of the 1930s. People starved, lost every monetary thing they had, America struggled. Being able to look back and see all of that, how are we going to mold our 20s? In 100 years, how will the 2020s be recorded in history books?

More importantly, how will your personal book read, your family remember, your photo albums recall? How do you plan to spend the 2020s?

Many people look back to see how far they’ve come and use it to encourage them to improve going forward. A new year is a common time to do this. It’s an easy marker to set down to gauge improvement and change. But the more new years I see the more and more I notice time. The more I’m fascinated by it. Time is unstoppable and unmovable. Its unrelenting. As a kid, I was always anxious for what’s next, what’s coming up and time always stood in my way. As a teen I wanted nothing more than to go back and visit ancient places and people and see with my own eyes historic events occur. But again, time stood in my way. As an adult, I’d like to just stop time. Even for a moment, and relish in this exact point in my life. But still, time stands firmly in my way. I cannot speed it up. I cannot bend it and I cannot stop it.

People assume time is a strict progression of cause to effect when actually from a nonlinear non-subjective viewpoint it’s more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly…timey wimey…stuff.

The Doctor

If you’d come to me 10 years ago and asked me to run away on a time traveling adventure, I wouldn’t have let you finish the sentence before I said yes. I wanted nothing more than to both run away and explore the world. How cool would it be to visit Shakespeare or Florence Nightingale? The idea preoccupied my thoughts and I spent a large amount of my precious time day dreaming about twisting time. But it didn’t happen. It can’t happen. And even my favorite doctor’s time came to an end and a new actor took his place. Because no matter how much Doctor Who I watched, I couldn’t stop or skip time.

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

Gandalf, Fellowship of the Ring

As I grew time became more valuable as I truly came to realize how you couldn’t hang onto it or get any of it back. I became a person who did everything because I wanted to squeeze the juice out of every day. I used to tell myself, “you can sleep when you’re dead” as I set out somewhere. I was constantly busy. This was an exciting time in my life. I went to Europe twice, and vacationed frequently. I was in school, worked as much as I could, volunteered for everything, went to parties, started playing video games, began performing piano for weddings. I slept hard because I was always so tired at the end of the day. I loved being on the go. I never wanted to slow down. If I slowed down, I was wasting my precious time. But what I didn’t realize was how much I needed to slow down occasionally. Not necessarily stop moving forward, but pausing for a moment. That pausing wasn’t a waste of time.

I suppose it’s like the ticking crocodile, isn’t it? Time is chasing after all of us, isn’t that right

Mrs. Snow, Finding Neverland

More and more I feel like time is chasing after me. Years go by so quickly. 10 years have vanished in the blink of an eye. Have I accomplished much in those years? Absolutely. But they’re still gone. Just like that. When I first saw Finding Neverland the elderly Snow couple were just a cute, sweet, old couple in the story. Now Mrs. Snow’s comment about time chasing after us resonates so deeply with me and it echoes in my mind. I’m becoming increasingly aware that it only seems to move faster and someday it will all end. And what have I done with my life? What kind of legacy would I leave behind? I only have a limited set amount of hours left to accomplish everything I want. Only so many days to decide how I will be remembered. Time is chasing after all of us, isnt that right?

We are being faced with a new decade. Blank and empty. How are we going to fill our time in the new year?