My Sources Say Gesundheit!
Posted on December 30, 2006
Uncategorized
LOOK INTO THE MANHOLE, WHICH WAS MY ONLY ENTERTAINMENT, AND SEEK THE WALRUS OF BLACK-AND-WHITE AND BED WITH HIM.
STROKE HIS TUSK FOR LUCK, GOOD OR BAD.
DO NOT SEEK TO CLICK UPON THE VIRTUES, AS THEY WILL BE VISITED UPON YOU IN DUE TIME.
Time seems to accelerate for me. I have four theories on why, and no interest in verifying any of them.
- Each day is proportionally smaller relative to your entire life span than the day before.
- When you are young, perhaps only several thousand days old, each day is a sizeable percentage of your entire lifespan. When you are older, say tens of thousands of days old, each day is nearly insignificant compared to the number of days that have gone before.
- As you get older, your brain ‘hardens’ so that new experiences skip across the surface like a stone on water and rarely sink in. When you were younger, each experience sank to the bottom immediately, making the total amount of experiences seem more frequent per day and therefore slowing the apparent passage of time.
- Milestones become increasingly infrequent as you age, making it more difficult to note the passage of time.
- When you are very young, you pass from grade to grade in school, grow larger, develop secondary sexual traits, and experience many ‘firsts’. These serve to accentuate the passage of time and make them noteworthy and memorable compared to later adulthood, when change comes less often. I, for one, have had the same job, domestic partner, and basic physical shape since I was in my late twenties. Consequently, all of the time that has passed since then seems equidistant from the present to me.
- The rate of change in our modern culture has itself slowed compared to previous decades.
- This one is the most fascinating to me, and I’ll talk more about this one in detail next time.
So to what do you attribute your changing perceptions of the passage of time? Is there anything you can or have done to slow it down? Do you want it to slow down, or are you happy with your impending mortality?
Comments
Impending mortality? I agree with you entirely. Nice theorisations.
The truth is, that when tine was invented, the space time continuum was on a slight slope. Therefore, time is rolling down the slope and is gradually gathering pace, However, my own impending mortality probably has less to do with time, than with the fact that I’m overweight, smoke, and live on a diet predominantly made up of things that used to walk around and breathe.
I hope this helps.
Happy New Year to you!
That is a pretty deep subject.
I have worked with alot of very old people in the past. Some of them are still friends of mine. The idea of facing a persons own mortality has always fascinated me. I think it’s kinda like childbirth, you just resign yourself to it because it’s going to happen.
I refuse to believe that the brain hardens as a person gets older… or I refuse to believe that it has to.
I think our culture does not put anough emphasise(?) on wisdom & realistic thinking that the older generation (which I am quickly becoming a part of) should be capable of.
I see a real prejudice in our society against the elderly.
& that shouldn’t be.
jagd:But how do you feel about it?
Confuscious:Do you then live in a coral reef?
l>t:Perhaps it does. But when my Grandma tells me the same stories a hundredth time, and tells me that we should just bomb the entire middle-East, or makes a racist comment, then I figure age and wisdom don’t necessarily correlate.
Regardless, I was talking more about the apparent acceleration of time that I have felt over the last decade and a half, which I understand is not unique to me.
My mind and opinions are as flexible as I can make them, but that doesn’t mean that I experience new things the same way I did when I was a child or a teenager.
I think you articulated that extremely well! It sucks getting old and there seems to be NO WAY to slow down the perception of it passing more quickly. It was only JUST 2000 a couple weeks ago!!! Now it’s 2007??? Next week it’ll be 2012 and sometime shortly after that I get to start over. Oh well, at least the first few years will pass slowly again!
Happy New Year (anyway!)
Of course not. age and wisdom don’t necessarily correlate. & of course not I experience new things the same way I did when I was a child or a teenager.
One of the points I was trying to make was about what the older generation could be capable of. This current generation of really old people(I’m guessing your grandmother is pretty old?)in my experience, has a different conscienceness then we do (i even hesitate to put myself in your shoes, because you are a bit younger then me) & yes this could be a factor; The rate of change in our modern culture has itself slowed compared to previous decades.
For one thing, the life span & quality of health (at least for our society/culture) has risen in the last 50(?)+ years.
To answer your questions:
1. I attribute my changing perceptions to; life experience.
2.Could I slow it down. maybe by, staying current, open minded, using my mental capacity, concentrating on being healthy.
3. do I want it to slow down? i would like to have my cake & eat too, like I assume everyone else would.
On the same subject, as i was looking for new courses to stimulate my aging brain, I came across this one & thought you might be interested in it sensation, perception and the aging process i hope the link works.
l>t:Grandma is 85. I mention her because she exhibits no real wisdom, as far as I can tell.
My late Grandfather, however, probably aged the way you aspire to. Even as he was dying of a fatal anemia, he read four to five books a week (his wife did the library runs for him). He died a few weeks before turning 90.
Oh, the Grandma I’m talking about is on the mother-in-law’s side. She’s great fun, very spry!
the Grampa was my mother’s father.
I feel that ‘impending mortality’ is a loaded phrase. As far as time is concerned, it doesn’t concern me. Yet. Don’t forget I’m from the future. My new year was already 12 or 24 hours old before the sun went down on your old year…