But what exactly is Time?

Well, if we go to the genius’ at Wikipedia, they say that Time is “a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to compare the duration of events or the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change of quantities in material reality or in the conscious experience.”

Loosely translated, Time is relative. Einstein was right…Way to go Al!

But relative to what? Well, that depends. (Let’s leave the science stuff out for a moment).

Ever notice that when you are doing something that you really don’t want to do, say spending Time at your in-laws, or doing yard work or that most the most soul-sucking event ever devised by man, Parent-Teacher Conferences, that Time apparently seems to drag on and on and on? Yet, when you are in the midst of enjoying something, say like, eating a pound of bacon, watching my Cowboys play football, riding The Harley or even spending Time with Mrs. Nickels, that Time seems to disappear faster than a jelly donut at a Weight Watchers meeting.

But I also notice that Time is relative to how young or old you are.

For example, when I got up this morning, I took my morning walk, grabbed my shower, had coffee with Mrs. Nickels before she left for work which seemed to me to happen in a flash. I just happened to look at the alarm clock in our bedroom and realized that in 12 hours, I had a Men’s Bible Study at our church that I was going to attend. Now, that 12 hours seems, to me, like it is nothing. Because at my particular age in life, I have come to the realization that the older I get, the faster Time flies.

But to my 5-year-old Weasel (Weasel, for those of you not familiar with my prose, is the technical term I use for my Grandkids), 12 hours is an eternity. In fact, when I am babysitting and in the rare instances that I have to institute a “Time Out”, the 5 minutes he is in that corner, for him, is an eternity.

Maybe Time has a direct correlation as to how we are living our lives. Maverick, it seems, never stops. That kid is a dynamo of energy and action. Which, to me, it seems, that the reason the 5 minute “Time Out” is an eternity to him is that Maverick is actually moving faster than Time itself. Which would explain how that kid can get into 3 different things, all of them creatively evil, at the same Time and not break a sweat.

Whereas I, as the “slightly older” Papa, who no longer has the energy of said Weasel, think that 5 minutes is nothing but a blip, aforethought, a millisecond, if you will in the order of my existence. In other words, Time has now become faster than I am.

When we are younger, we “Can’t wait” for things to happen. We want things to happen now so that we can hurry up and move on to the next thing. We think we have plenty of Time to do things, to get things done, to live our lives.

When we get older, we have the luxury of “Being Patient” and letting the event come to us. We, as “older” people, like to take our Time, enjoy and savor, like the eating of a good steak, the event in question. We have come to the realization that we do not have much of that precious quality we call “Time” left in our accounts. That once our allotment of Time is finished, then we are done as well.

I must stop here to offer a confession.

Usually, I have my blog posts up on Monday and I do my best to stay true to form on getting my work done. Well, except for last week when I was sick, but for the most part, I am very good about meeting my written assignment deadlines. But if you notice that today is Tuesday, I am one day late in getting this post up. And do you know why? It’s because I lost track of Time. I got so busy with all the things of watching my Weasels, putting notes together for the class I teach at church, picking up kids from school, trying to explain to the governmental agents who wear black suits that the kid who hacked into their missile defence system really is my 5-year-old grandson named Maverick (which he uses as his hacker name) and that he was just looking for the directions to Sesame Street.

Most people think we live in just a 3-dimensional universe, Length, Width, and Height. But now there is talk that we are adding a 4^th dimension (yes physics students, I know about dimensions 5 through 10, but this is a blog, not a science lecture) and that dimension is Time. And much like Length, which pulls us one way, Width and Height pulls us in their respective different directions as well. This explains the feeling you get when you are swamped with work and you get the sensation you are being pulled “every which way but loose”. Well, while Time doesn’t pull on you, it has an effect on you as well: The feeling of movement.

Yes, Life and Time are like that. A serious of physical events that, depending on how old or young you are, determines just how fast this 4th dimension speeds through our existence. Time is indeed relative to who you are and what you are doing. Time marches on.

Now if you will excuse me, I have to explain to the NSA why Maverick was wanting to send missiles to North Korea…again.