It turned December on us. I know people say this all the time, but honestly, I do not know where November went. Weren’t people just Trick-Or-Treating a minute ago?
Time.
I can remember being so excited for Christmas when I was a kid. Every year. But there was one in particular, where I was coming out of my seams. It might have been the year I was hoping to get a Magic Kit. I can remember being in front of the twinkling tree in the living room with my Mom. She just smiled at me and said “Honey, it’s only four days away.”
(Oh MY God Mom. FOUR Days?) That was like a life sentence to me. The wait was agonizing. I don’t think we got much time off from school for the Holidays either. Not like today. So I am pretty sure I had to suit up, and face the nuns until the 24th.
Nonetheless, it turned December on us, today. Time can be a strange and funny beast. When you think that 2019 is almost over. The year of Great Vision, 2020, is just around the corner. And yet. Although this past year seems to have flown by, trying to think back to the month of January seems so distant, so extremely far away. Yes. Sneaky time.
Was Mother Goose trying to tell us something? Was she speaking in code?
Hickory, dickory, dock!
The mouse ran up the clock;
The clock struck one,
And down he run,
Hickory, dickory, dock!
What is dickory, for crying out loud?
And. Hickory, like the wood, or?
And finally. Dock in what context?
I think it is code.
I think time is directly related to mice, somehow. Hence, my fascination with mice as our alter egos, and potential time travelers. Cheesy, I know.
Time has been around since we started measuring it. They say the first “instances” of lunar calendars date back to around 6,000 years ago, and the first “time keeping” devices have been ascribed to Egypt, circa 1500 B.C.
These days, if you live in the U.S. and want the official word on time, you have to consult “The Time and Frequency Division” of the NIST: National Institute of Standards and Technology, in the U.S. Department of Commerce. It “maintains the standard for frequency and time interval” for the United States. https://www.nist.gov/pml/time-and-frequency-division
They have a picture of a guy on their website, who looks like he lives for the science of keeping time. Like, he works all day on nanoseconds, and things. He’s kind of balding, and has one of those little beard-deals that is almost a goatee. White shirt, pocket protector. He’s sitting in a room with a lot of metallic gadgets behind him.
And, I bet you any money, first thing this morning, that guy looked at his co-worker-geek, and said, “Geez. Can you believe it is December already?”
Ah, but seriously. Einstein said “time” is relative. I’ll give you a couple of examples.
• What time is it when an elephant sits on your car? Time to get a new car.
• If twenty dogs run after one cat, what time is it? Twenty after one.
So here we are. At the start of December. Already. But truthfully, time moves at the same speed it always has. And the “relative” part is us. We can only appreciate it, while it is here. Which is one moment. At a time.
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“Lost time is never found again.” – Benjamin Franklin.
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“Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.” – William Shakespeare.
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“Time is the wisest counselor of all.” – Pericles.
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