I haven’t really worn a watch since high school. For many years I’ve gone without a timepiece on my wrist because I’ve had bad luck with them; either they’ve been destroyed in the washing machine or they’ve died for lack of a battery. This detritus of watches eventually meets the rubbish bin or becomes part of my seasonal donation to the local thrift shop.
It wasn’t until September that I needed to buy one. This was due more to occupational reasons than to mere necessity. I bought it at the mall, and I wear it only when required. It is not an accessory that I use every day, but it is one that has given me a lot of thought about the nature of time.
Mostly, I’ve thought about how time is perceived. Its perception fascinates me for the simple reason that it seems to be all in our mind. If we created the idea of time, if we have perceived its hours, seconds, and minutes then we have created its inflexibility. In short, we have defined its function and by extension have defined its limits.
I think it’s more flexible than we realize.
This sounds strange, but take the happiest memory in your life. If you sit in a quiet room, close your eyes and envision yourself in this happy moment, you would surely remember its details. This recollection can evoke biological responses identical to the moment. Science has already proven this link to your biology. Your mind isn’t encumbered to the hour or, it seems, is your body. It can relive moments that have affected you emotionally without a time machine. Time is flexible in this way.
It is not enough to simply believe that time is a corporeal construct. It seems the individual must make an effort to understand its illusive qualities; one of them being its hold on our perceptions.
We may not be able to perceive every detail of the past, present, or future, but we can experience them through a state of mind unrelated to the hour and minute hand. We can revisit the happiest, or worst, of times. We can dream of the future and grander realities. The mind is able without the need for the hour, or the minute, or the cogs and gears that have wrapped our wrists for a hundred years.
Copyright © Tyler Gant 2010 for Just Moving Along .com
