On Time...
what is time? I decided to write about time because I started to ponder whether anniversaries are simply a human condition, or do annual celebrations actually mean anything. Keep in mind that this essay is purely speculative and in no way did I do any research of any kind whatsoever.
I for one nourish my mothers memory on a daily basis. But now on this anniversary I am required by peers and family to come with them in a social gathering to pay respect. Would they not pay respect otherwise? Of course they would. I'm sure that all my family think about the situation on a regular basis. So why this need to congregate annually to recognize an event passed. And furthermore why are we almost required to participate. It stems from my theory that humans are absolutely governed by their fellow man. There is no autonomous human. It simply cannot exist. This idea that we are constantly being judged by our peers is the primary driving force behind human development of all kind. In fact this is why organized religion and this manifestation of god exists in the first place. However I digress. The subject at hand is time, not god. Or is it?
Anything significant that has ever happened to your country or yourself, is remembered once a year on the day that it occurred. Knowing what we do about our calendar, we realize that our record keeping of time is a bit skewed and that the actual anniversary may in fact lay on the day before or the day after. What is an "actual" anniversary. Well empirically speaking it would be exactly 365/6 days after the event at hand. Keep in mind that our Gregorian calendar is based on the time it takes for the earth to make one full rotation around the sun, the tropical year. So the earth is in the exact same place it was when my mother died. Does this actually bear any significance. Why are humans drawn to this phenomenon. I tend to believe in the astronomical signs. I believe that the massive gravitational forces that exist in space have a significant effect on the birth of anything; if the moon can affect the ocean so, why can't a hundred stars and solar systems affect one child. Thusly, perhaps the fact that the earth is in the exact place it was exactly one year ago, might cause some sort of reaction in our brain that was associated with the event whose anniversary we may be celebrating.
however, does remembering/celebrating something once a year better than say, remembering and celebrating it everyday?
many genius physicists and philosophers have argued that time is something much more tangible than humans consider. The "fabric" of time. It is something that can be manipulated and torn. If this is true, then is it actually cyclic? Does everything feel the same annually? If time is indeed a "fabric" then never is there ever a time that coincides with ANY time before it. It completely contradicts the humans want of anniversaries celebrations. However, anniversaries will never die. It gives humans a reason to justify wasting time to think about something passed. We justify the opportunity costs of spending time to commemorate, rather than work or play or what have you.
Does it make me a bad person to purposefully not go to the commemoration? I think not. But does that actually mean anything? The "super man" can justify that it does not. The pious man would.
Revolting against the absurdity of anniversaries drew me here, to write about it. Did I, in a sense, celebrate the anniversary in doing so? I sat down and contemplated on the death of my mother for a long time. So I guess, for all argumentative purposes, I in fact did celebrate the anniversary. I feel that I was not pressured into doing so; it was purely self motivation. So does the alignment of earth relative to the sun in fact cause humans to remember the exact moment a year ago? Is it a physical reaction to gravitation, or simply the human condition. We have been forced to adhere to the structure of the Gregorian calendar so much so that it has become innate. A Chinese year, an Aztec year, an a tropical year are all different lengths of "time." However they all have one thing in common. It is a set amount of time after the exact moment last year.
So is time something real and tangible, or simply a human condition. The existentialist in me argues that the concept of time is outside the human ability to understand it. Thus why worry. However I was drawn here to write this on this specific day, Feb. 6. Exactly one year after my mother's death. How can I claim that time is outside the grasps of human cognizance when I am so much affected by it. Is it conditioning? Have humans trained themselves so much so that they are one with time. Without time, humans don't exist and without humans time does not exist. Furthermore without humans, does god exist. However I digress the subject at hand is not god, it is time.
or is it?
I for one nourish my mothers memory on a daily basis. But now on this anniversary I am required by peers and family to come with them in a social gathering to pay respect. Would they not pay respect otherwise? Of course they would. I'm sure that all my family think about the situation on a regular basis. So why this need to congregate annually to recognize an event passed. And furthermore why are we almost required to participate. It stems from my theory that humans are absolutely governed by their fellow man. There is no autonomous human. It simply cannot exist. This idea that we are constantly being judged by our peers is the primary driving force behind human development of all kind. In fact this is why organized religion and this manifestation of god exists in the first place. However I digress. The subject at hand is time, not god. Or is it?
Anything significant that has ever happened to your country or yourself, is remembered once a year on the day that it occurred. Knowing what we do about our calendar, we realize that our record keeping of time is a bit skewed and that the actual anniversary may in fact lay on the day before or the day after. What is an "actual" anniversary. Well empirically speaking it would be exactly 365/6 days after the event at hand. Keep in mind that our Gregorian calendar is based on the time it takes for the earth to make one full rotation around the sun, the tropical year. So the earth is in the exact same place it was when my mother died. Does this actually bear any significance. Why are humans drawn to this phenomenon. I tend to believe in the astronomical signs. I believe that the massive gravitational forces that exist in space have a significant effect on the birth of anything; if the moon can affect the ocean so, why can't a hundred stars and solar systems affect one child. Thusly, perhaps the fact that the earth is in the exact place it was exactly one year ago, might cause some sort of reaction in our brain that was associated with the event whose anniversary we may be celebrating.
however, does remembering/celebrating something once a year better than say, remembering and celebrating it everyday?
many genius physicists and philosophers have argued that time is something much more tangible than humans consider. The "fabric" of time. It is something that can be manipulated and torn. If this is true, then is it actually cyclic? Does everything feel the same annually? If time is indeed a "fabric" then never is there ever a time that coincides with ANY time before it. It completely contradicts the humans want of anniversaries celebrations. However, anniversaries will never die. It gives humans a reason to justify wasting time to think about something passed. We justify the opportunity costs of spending time to commemorate, rather than work or play or what have you.
Does it make me a bad person to purposefully not go to the commemoration? I think not. But does that actually mean anything? The "super man" can justify that it does not. The pious man would.
Revolting against the absurdity of anniversaries drew me here, to write about it. Did I, in a sense, celebrate the anniversary in doing so? I sat down and contemplated on the death of my mother for a long time. So I guess, for all argumentative purposes, I in fact did celebrate the anniversary. I feel that I was not pressured into doing so; it was purely self motivation. So does the alignment of earth relative to the sun in fact cause humans to remember the exact moment a year ago? Is it a physical reaction to gravitation, or simply the human condition. We have been forced to adhere to the structure of the Gregorian calendar so much so that it has become innate. A Chinese year, an Aztec year, an a tropical year are all different lengths of "time." However they all have one thing in common. It is a set amount of time after the exact moment last year.
So is time something real and tangible, or simply a human condition. The existentialist in me argues that the concept of time is outside the human ability to understand it. Thus why worry. However I was drawn here to write this on this specific day, Feb. 6. Exactly one year after my mother's death. How can I claim that time is outside the grasps of human cognizance when I am so much affected by it. Is it conditioning? Have humans trained themselves so much so that they are one with time. Without time, humans don't exist and without humans time does not exist. Furthermore without humans, does god exist. However I digress the subject at hand is not god, it is time.
or is it?
posted by nick at 10:32 AM
2 Comments:
I agree with the statement you made that no moment in time is ever identical to another moment in time. It’s scientifically impossible. Even during anniversaries or perennial events the mood is always different. What you think about is always different. The experience is different. The lesson learned is different. The celebration is different. What’s even scarier is that you cannot control it just as you cannot control time. You wanted to rebel against institutionalized norms and yet you were drawn to celebrate it regardless by writing about it. Now if you didn’t have a calendar to tell you that it has been exactly one year since your mother has passed, would you have still written on this day? Perhaps not. But you would remember that it was last winter. And next winter you would again remember that it is the season of your mother’s death.
A word on this: remembrance is in itself celebration. Since memory and perception are notoriously selective, the fact that you choose to contemplate it is celebrating it. You don’t need a vigil or a gathering of people to make it official. After all, who is the more pious man: the one who goes to church every Sunday but doesn’t pray during the week or the one who prays silently in their room everyday but doesn’t attend church? Perhaps a pious man should also attend church if he was truly pious, but I am much more of an individualist who believes in self-reliance. So if there was a vigil for your mother, you wouldn’t have to attend it because you celebrate her often, but yet, there is something significant about an anniversary. Because even if you chose to ignore it, it doesn’t mean it’s not happening. Same thing with time. You could never keep track of time, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. If humans didn’t exist, there would still be time, just no one to keep track of it. The same thing with God, if human didn’t exist, it wouldn’t mean God doesn’t exist, just that no one would be there to perceive Him. I am only certain of two things: that we cannot control or manipulate time or God. But it doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
i definitely understand your point of view but i still take my cynical approach.
i am not convinced that in the absence of man, that god and time exist. discussion is inevitable.
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