There are tools of understanding which give us a basis for relative use of a fifth dimension we call time. Without them we wouldn’t know when to get up for work or school nor would we know when to come home.
Before the birth of the universe, we suppose, there was nothing. Based on that supposition, it would be impossible to talk of any time before the big bang, because time did not exist. The rotation of celestial bodies on their own axis and movement in relation to others determine periods of time that we on this planet can readily identify with. The system of time enables humankind to maintain everything in perspective.
Any where else but on earth, that system would be ineffectual It would be pointless to refer to a twenty four day on a planet that takes thirty hours to complete its rotation, or a three hundred and sixty five day year on a planet which takes four hundred days to orbit its sun. Assuming similar environmental conditions on that planet, a male might have an earth life expectancy of seventy five years, but only fifty five longer years actual expectancy. Yet, his longevity would be the same. Obviously, a calendar from his earthling mother for Christmas would be useless and a Rolex, totally worthless.
Not only does time assist with our daily lives, but also facilitates an understanding of historical events. Labels such as seconds, minutes, weeks, months, years, centuries and millenniums are used to comprehend a chronological relationship between one event and another.
By combining our perspective of time with distance (another adapted measurement) we can deduce speed. Then, calculating the time it takes for the sun’s light to reach Earth at light speed, a measurement called a light year is constructed to determine vast distances in space. (i.e.) the distance light would travel in a year. The nearest star outside of our solar system is said to be Alpha-Centauri, some four and a half light years away. It’s not likely that we will ever travel to it, but it makes an interesting trivia question.
The sea and the sky are real. They can be seen and admired. Time by contrast, is an intangible which is often wasted, frequently lost and occasionally referred to as a friend or enemy. We can claim to have invented it or discovered it. Neither is the truth. Our limited control allows us only to use it. It cannot be stretched, saved or retrieved.
Daylight saving is merely a process which costs us one hour of sleep at the start and an extra hour’s sleep when it is reversed, several months later. On a personal level, training oneself to get out of bed an hour earlier would achieve exactly the same result.
Now that I am out of time and have potentially wasted some of yours, I must conclude that time may be more than just a figment of an insomniac’s imagination, but it is definitely not worth losing sleep over. The greatest irony about it is that nobody knows how much time they have, so another old cliche comes to mind; use it wisely!
