|
Time is not constant, at least as applied to human life, time varies. Time goes by at different speeds and, surprisingly, its speed is not at first logically apparent. Time is relative to the amount of new and different things you do in life. The more you do, the slower time goes to accommodate. The less you do and the more you repeat the same thing, the faster time goes. Repetition is like morphine that dulls the senses and the world slips by while you wallow in your narcosis.
Unlike money, the more you spend time, the more time you have. Perhaps an example would be more illustrative. I had a private practice in otolaryngology for the past six and a half years. That is the longest period of time that I have spent in one location doing one thing. I have collected a great many wonderful experiences and a few bad ones. I could pull quite a few memories out of that time. However, overall, the time passed unexpectedly quickly. This is in comparison to, say, the last six months in 1998. I could almost tell you what I was doing most every day. The same would be true for my travels in China, my first days in Illinois at my residency, the start of medical school, college, high school and so on.
Even one day can expand greatly. One morning in Switzerland, Susan and I clambered up a trail on the north wall of the Eiger. It was a hiking trail, but with a significant vertical aspect. Susan, with tremendous determination held onto the wire rope on the ledges, placing one foot tentatively yet firmly in front of the other. On the ladders, invisible blindfolds hid the spectacular aerial views, that she might not lock in a frozen panic. At lunch she determined that she was not going down the way we had come up. It might be easy for me, but was mentally impossible for her. We pressed downward on a nearly hidden unmarked animal path. Surprisingly it was quite easy and the 500 foot dropoff was hidden off to our side by about 50 feet of forest. It remained hidden until we had to cross a stream. The stream was basically an avalanche chute in the winter and was bare stone sloping about 10 degrees toward the cliff edge. So; it was cold (about 32°F), wet (a mixture of rain and snow was falling), slippery (this is a stream) and exposed (the valley of Grindelwald was spread out below). The next two minutes passed very, very slowly. Ask Susan.
It is the same thing movie producers learned some years ago. To make time appear to go by really fast, you shoot the action in slow motion. To make time appear to go by really slowly, you melt one image into another and years may appear to pass.
So 1998 proved to be a year filled to the brim, with slow motion time.
|
