Conventional wisdom or old wives tales would have us believe that time actually speeds up as we age. Remember when we were small and the school day seemed to move at a glacial pace? Or how it took eons for Santa to finally make an appearance?
While it does seem to me as if Christmas comes all too quickly each year, which would substantiate the belief that the clock hands whip around the dial at an ever increasing pace, Still, I experience plenty of times when time tortoises. Like in meetings. I hate meetings. Or in the dentist chair.
I must say that I haven’t noticed time speeding up. Lately though, I have caught time behaving in unexpected ways, time warping if you will. It would make seem logical to me that time set aside for enjoyment would pass quickly while chore time might drag. But that doesn’t seem to be the case.
What I’m talking about is a weird sort of time distortion. For example, the day we spent waiting for the tsunami lasted about a week. That makes some sense to me, I guess.
However, this past week lasted about a day except for yesterday which seemed to last nearly 3 days. Yesterday was a fun day – set aside for Lei Venus and I as an art day. Today is a work day whizzing by even without the notorious time sucks of Facebook and Twitter.
That gives the lie to leisure time going by in an instant and work time dragging on slowly.
I’m pretty sure this isn’t a manifestation of Menopause brain fog – my brain seems to be working as well as it ever doesn’t these days. Is there a tear in the space-time fabric?
All this musing (read perseverating) about time came up because I could swear I just wrote a blog post a day or two ago. And it’s been a week! Some days I feel like an elder Alice whose fallen down the rabbit hole and can’t get up. And everything is topsy turvy. Especially time.
Is anyone else experiencing time warps? Does time speed up as we age? Tell me it isn’t just me.
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Lynette,
My Dad, who is now failing in so many ways, told me several decades ago, “Time speeds up, the older you get.” He was a scientist and engineer, and of course he was right. (think about when you’re in the dentist chair, or something else terrible.) When my kids were little and we would be having a precious moment, I would sometimes cry, bec/ I knew it was hopeless to try to slow down time and freeze the moment forever.
I listened to a really crazy neurolobiologist on NPR today talking about “self, the brain, not-self, and neurophysiology”. I am an intelligent person, and I could not follow him, but it sure sounded awesome. I should do some research on this, but I’m too busy w/ work, garden, etc. I don’t have enough time to indulge all my interests and passions.
I so admire your creativity and output. Never feel bad if you don’t output “on time”. You are self driven. I’m sure that time speeds up w./ pleasure and slows down w/ pain or boredom. We’ve been watching “The Tudors” (riveting and sexy), but I’m so grossed out by human cruelty. Then realize that decaps were a gift of a swift and relatively painless death. EEK. Sorry to leave you w/ that image, what were we discussing? Oh yes, time warps. Maybe you just need to watch some old Star Treks . . . 🙂
A.
love,
A.
I have been cleaning out boxes of old photos lately and boy is that a time warp! Seeing a picture of yourself when you were younger than your child is interesting and sure keeps you on the diet and exercise plan.
As the saying goes, time flies! it seems to me there aren`t enough hours in a day, to accomplish all i want to do. Now in my so-called golden years, i have on occassionally time warps. Actually i fine them welcome as it gives me time to reflect and ultimately just enjoy life as it comes.
I LOVE the old star trek series – warp drive, all ahead full. I’m a little reluctant to look at any old pix of myself just now, at least until I lose about 5 pounds. (Should lose 10 but I’m being realistic. Sort of.) Maybe Betty’s right – just enjoy the time warps.
I have been cleaning out boxes of old photos lately and boy is that a time warp! Seeing a picture of yourself when you were younger than your child is interesting and sure keeps you on the diet and exercise plan.