I can't remember how things I've forgotten. I forget the usual stuff, birthdays, appointments, groceries, keys, etc... but most of all I forget time. I rarely feel sleepy at night. I'll be doing something, reading or talking to people, and look up at the clock and it's already three o' clock in the morning. Sometimes I feel like I'm an observer standing outside the flow of time, vaguely aware of its passing. It's not an uncomfortable feeling, to realize that hours at a time just blend together and fade away from my perception, there's only a sense of loss in realizing that another .00014% of your life just went by.
I forget time most often when I'm inside. I'm sure it has everything to do with the abundance of artificial light. While outside or in rooms with windows the light changes over time but in the library or my dorm room, my roommate keeps the blinds closed, the lighting is constant, there's no variation in light. You lose track of time without the creeping shadows in the evening or the shifting sunlight in the morning. They say that when Edison created the light bulb people went from sleeping ten hours a night to eight. Lights have become more abundant since then, no longer just a few hours use at night, we have them on constantly.
Life moves faster when you forget time, the space in between events disappears. I've come to view this as both a blessing and a curse. Waiting is cut to a minimum. Days feel fuller without being aware of all the filler. On the other hand events that seem far away barrel down on you. Events in planner are closer than they appear.
I'm sure everyone forgets time to some extent, roommates and friends looking at their wrists and then dashing off to some nearly missed meeting or date. Time really does fly.
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Matt you have some fascinating thoughts here. I really liked the .00014% of your life idea. Also the artificial lighting thought was great. It made me open the windows of my shady motel room and let in some light. You've got some potential in this writing, exercise it
ReplyDeleteTo improve you need to make this flow a little better, I feel like you have good ideas stranded in a mirk of cliché and broken sentences. "I can't remember how things I've forgotten" What does that mean? "Events in planner are closer than they appear" That made me laugh really hard, like the warning on a car mirror. Did you mean it this way? If you did lead into it with some explanation because right now it feels like you did it by mistake. "Time really does fly" Cliche and unimaginative.
I really like your ideas. There is never enough time in a day to get anything done it feels like. You could expand more on your light idea I thought that was cool. Just how light really defies time. Light is not subject to our time it passes by us. They even have light years that determine how long a light has lived. I personally do not believe that time exists. It is just something that we have in order to keep track of things and organize our lives. Time is meaningless if you really think about it. We would be so much better off without it.
ReplyDeleteI think the big question you should answer is so what? You realize that you let time slip away so now what are you going to do about it? Will you change anything to connivence time?
Very interesting thoughts matt. You are a deep thinker and I love to hear your thoughts. I probably don't understand most of them but I really do love reading your work.