The renaissance of Time

"For my dearest."

This is an idea I had during OBS while I was doing the 24 hr solo experience. And though I mentioned not wanting to go on and on about the days of magic like all others who went to the camp, I figured this would make good material for the hollow mind. Or the curious one.

Background info: I had to go thru 24 hrs of being alone in the wild, not being able to see a single soul and having to build our own shelter and cook our own meals. During that time, I spent 30 minutes building the shelter, and 23hrs 30 minutes eating, writing, sleeping and thinking. The great bulk of the time was due the fact that I had no track of time and was often multi-tasking. I was chomping as I write, writing as I think, thinking as I sleep, and sleeping as I chomp. Completing the full circle.

~If the only reason why Humans reign is becoz we think, I believe most of us haven't been very much different from a primate for a long time already. I had the chance to be human for once at OBS, hope you try to be one soon if u can.~

Time is a very special idea. Who is to decide how Time is defined? Who is even to decide Time is called "time?" Was it since ancient times? There! You see? The word is being mentioned yet again. Who is to determine that Time be separated into 24hrs x 60minutes x 60 seconds every single day? Who are we to determine that we have the right division of Time? And why do we even bother to do this? In the animal world, Time is at best of 2 different phases. The day. And the night. (but even within this simple division, there are grey areas like the false dawn and the extended dusk, who are we to be sure that there isn't any flaw in our system of "time"? That there aren't any "grey areas" to speak about?) Why are humans seeking to define Time more and more clearly now, as they try to bring the fraction of time down to the limits of human technology. As we see sports records going down into the milliseconds, we also witness how the current space technology needs up to milli-millisecond divisions in order to strive towards perfection of accuracy. (Though Perfection is utopian and has just found its way into my unspell list) Are we still controlling Time? Or has the "time" we created mastered our lives?

When I was doing my solo, "time" was lost, and Time became blurred. Fluid if u must. Time became just another factor which determines how much I could do with the given resources. Time itself became a resource. As I got into this world of my own, I realized that there was another face to Time, and the real way Time should work. I realized that without a "time telling" device, like a watch, Time no longer had to conform to the regularity of its counterparts in the rigid world anymore. Time became free flowing, ever moving, yet at different rate depending on how one decides to control his/her own use of Time. Time no longer moves in a go/stop/go/stop/go/stop pattern, like the second hand of our clock. Even at superhuman speed, superhuman division of Time, the "time" we so readily accept still goes by the set of rules, that they go/stop/go/stop/go/stop. However without such clear divisions, Time gets to moves non stop, at different rates. During the solo itself, I had control over whether Time flowed like a stream, or rushed like a river, I became a dam of Time. All this was made possible simply becoz I no longer thought of civilized "time", but instead used Time in its purest form---the passing of moments.

Einstein once had this "special theory of relativity" where he mentioned that Time seems to pass faster when we enjoy the things we are doing, and slower when we dun. How true can this statement get! (It even won him a Nobel prize for this!) However, can this theory ever be true if we actually think logically and under the set of rules we set for ourselves? And for "time"? (anyway, logic is also something to be unspelt one day) No. This would have become just a "as if" and unreal. But I believe that Einstein was actually trying to make the same point as me here. That Time flows, and is fluid. Instead of jumping in divisions as "time" does now. For if Time flows, then the things we do determine its duration, instead of having the duration of "time" determine what we can do.

It's almost cliched to say that Time and Tide waits for no man. But instead, it is actually "time" that waits for no man, and not Time. "time" jumps blindly, whereas Time can actually be manipulated by man to make the best out of it each day---by doing the things we enjoy doing.

Man are too often too pressured by the strains of "time", when ironically, Time itself was supposed to grant us the grace of acting with reduced haste. Do we really need the clearly defined "time"? Its really time to think about it.


The irony of it all: in writing this Unspelling, I spent 49 minutes 24 seconds, and it bothers me. And though I'm trying to disprove "time" in this post, I mentioned the word "TIME" exactly 54 times. <----Including this.