Time
The workplace seems to go by in increments of weeks.
Relationships go by in increments of years.
The drive there is always longer than the drive back.
A year felt like an eternity to pass when you were 5, but when you’re 33 a year seems to go by in the blink of an eye.
Why is it that the experience of time seems relative in some sense? It is such an absolute thing. One of the most absolute things I can think of.
TIME IS A COMMODITY is one of my favorite metaphors I learned from the linguist George Lakoff in my metaphor class in college. We say that we “spend” or “save” time, just as if it were money, another commodity.
Time is the most finite and valuable resource we have. This is why I get aggravated with people who say it’s just wasted time. Once we are born, it is a countdown from there until the day you die. You can’t get time back. You are afforded what you are born with, generally speaking. Good lifestyle choices can add some years, probably, but pretty much you’ve got as many years as your genes programmed you to have on this earth.
Like the movie Gattaca, and how each child was pricked at birth and its blood analyzed down to its genetic material…and the results were read out to the parents. Age span: 33 years. Defects: Myopia and heart rhythm problems. In this utopian world of Gattaca, your destiny was pre-determined at birth. There was no getting around what you were born with — you were only as good as your genetic code.
That to me seems like a depressing world to live in. The rest of the movie focused on this sickly individual striving to prove everyone wrong and outlive his projected years. I would have the same mentality if I were told that I was going to drop dead in my thirties and would never amount to anything. What a way to live, to know from birth what will happen to you…and yet I fear with the advent of DNA technology, Gattaca is not far off from the reality we may be living in soon.
I’d like to stop wasting time, knowing what a precious resource it is. I’m 33 and there’s still a lot left that I want to accomplish. Currently, I’m getting major house envy and am nesting with nowhere to nest. Next, it’ll be a baby on my mind. The years go by quickly now, and I can only imagine how much more quickly they’ll go by as I get older. It’ll only get worse from here.
My dad is 71 now, and with the way he smokes I never thought he’d get to be that age. The years must feel like months by that point. Just think about all the life he’s experienced. That’s what there is to look forward to about getting older. Accumulating that experience and turning it into wisdom you can share with others. Our society very much devalues older people, which is a shame. They have so much to offer the world. Maybe in this way time really is on our side.
