Trey Smith
Time is one of those concepts that most of us take for granted...except when we're running late!! It is one of those fixed and permanent aspects of our lives. Most of us think of time in relation to ourselves. I suppose that's natural since we view the entirety of existence from the narrow lens of our own mind and ego.
But time isn't really a constant. Oh, maybe the overall idea of it is a fixture in the human conception of existence, but often my time ain't your time and vice versa.
For example, from my perspective, this post is hitting the blog at 9:45 a.m. on Tuesday, December 13, 2011. However, if my fellow scribe Ta-Wan reads it the moment it posts, it isn't 9:45 a.m. at all. Heck, it's not even Tuesday! For him, it's 4:45 a.m. on Wednesday.
If I were to call Ta-Wan on the telephone right now, I would be straddling the very idea of the time continuum. I would be engaging in an activity that the majority of folks would consider an impossibility -- I would be making direct contact with the future!
It's Tuesday in South Bend, but I would be talking to someone in Australia who is living in tomorrow and, if I were to die upon hanging up the phone, it would be a tomorrow I would never live!!
Likewise, Ta-Wan would be engaging in an activity that most folks believe is an impossibility -- reaching back into the past. December 13 has come and gone for him, yet he would be talking to me who is living December 13 right now.
Back in my early adulthood, I lived in Baker City, Oregon which is very near the imaginary line that divides the Mountain and Pacific Time Zones. I had a girlfriend (later to become my first wife) who lived in Bliss, Idaho. Two or three weekends per month, I would make the drive from Baker City to Bliss.
Going to Bliss, I lost an hour. Returning from Bliss, I gained an hour. In "me" time, the trip took about 4 hours, but when I traveled to Bliss it took me 5 hours and when I returned it only took me 3 hours. When I lost an hour, where did it go? When I gained an hour, where did it come from? If I didn't know about this imaginary line, I wouldn't have lost or gained any time at all.
Every trip was the same...time after time.
Of course, time zones are an artificial construct, just to indicate where in the rotation and orbit of the earth we are at any moment. Or adjusted to get an extra hour of light of day at different time of year (DST)...in Hawaii we don't do that. I got a birthday wish a day early from someone in Hong Kong; Facebook had alerted her that it was my birthday, but just on the other side of the dateline, she was a day ahead, or I was a day behind. None of this matters ...except when you're jetlagged!
ReplyDeleteYour Bliss trips took the same amount of time...it's just an accounting game, and calendars are books. A clever government would think of a way to tax the time you "gained"!
On a side note, my husband has a hobby: he collects old calendars (sourcerd on eBay) and reuses them. In his office, it's 1945.
How messed up would it be with a wife or face book friend on another planet with a different diameter, orbit and so on?
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