Greetings all,
I've had things ruminating in my head this week in preparation for the blog post. I've thought of issues of fairness, global awareness, and creativity. I landed in the arena of time. So much of our lives is dictated by the necessities of the clock. Many of us are paid by the hour. We worry if we'll have enough time to get all we need done in a day finished, and time seems to be moving faster.
So what has happened to time? We have all these time saving devices around us. We can send and receive messages instantly from almost anywhere. Why is it that time seems to be moving faster and faster. The older you get the faster everything seems to be moving. I once figured it was like one of those related rate world problems from calculus (yes the Mooneagle took calculus). The set up goes something like this. A hose is filling a tub of water. When you start, the water level rises at a particular rate, but as the water rises the rate of the tub filling increases, because the water doesn't have as far to fall. (Yes I am making you do some spatial thinking, oh come on it's not that bad I won't even ask you to solve for x). Maybe life is like that the more time we've had the more our perception of time increases.
The other factor in this where did the time go phenomena is that with all our connectivity and devices we are constantly having little bites taken out of day by text messages, tweets, TV, Facebook posts, email, and phone calls. It is hard to make space for quiet time when at any moment you can be receiving data, updates, and or calls from friends and family in far flung time zones. I recently posted on Facebook about someone playing an online video game in which their character had its own career and minimum game gold earning requirements to maintain virtual lairs. They literally have a part time job in the game.
With so many distractions and entertainments you start to wonder if it is all by design. I try not to go all conspiracy theory on people, but I look at the way government business gets done (at midnight with special riders on bills) and I begin to wonder if all this entertainment is like a big magician's trick. I've heard people say if they knew what was going on they'd be pissed. We have reality TV (which isn't very real if they have directors and editors) to distract us from reality, or rather consensus reality. We get obsessed with TV, movies, and entertainment news and we don't know our neighbors. Now I have my shows I follow just like everybody else (Dr. Who anyone?), and yet there has been a growing dissatisfaction with it all. Have you ever noticed that people in these fantasy lives rarely are sitting around watching TV or are spending all day on the Internet (unless they are being made fun of for it)? People go out to clubs or dances and gasp they actually dance. People have regular card and game nights. (Side note: the Mooneagle has been attempting to organize a regular game night since he reached the conclusion that fun is a requirement). I'm not saying to cancel your cable, Internet or phone. I'm not saying that entertainment is bad. We as a species crave it, we crave a good story. The difference is that in the past century we have become more and more passive about how we acquire entertainment. We used to create more of it on our own, telling stories around a campfire or table. It is part of being in community with others to share stories.
So how about you? Is your time being eaten by the distractions of technology or entertainment? Are you unaware of the world around you except via Facebook posts? Do you measure your life against the lives of television characters? Are you too busy to engage with the outside world? What would happen if you let go of one distraction? What would happen if you were unreachable for some portion of each day? Would you claim your time without feeling guilty? Ponder on these musings while I count my blessings for you taking the time to read my posts.
Peace and Blessings,
Thomas Mooneagle
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