I think we all know that there is certainly a real element to time, as it is measurable. Whether or not our modern ways of measuring time are man made is irrelevant, for the sun, moon, and seasons themselves illustrate the passage of time. We see, and for that matter FEEL the effects of time in everything on earth, most notably on our faces, and within our bodies. At this point, some may be thinking I clicked the wrong button, as it appears, on the surface, that my opinion sides with time being real. And I DO “think” time is real, in a manner of speaking, but I BELIEVE time is relative, as all things are.
Perhaps we should first explore the term “relative”. I recall picking up a tiny paper-backed book that could fit into your pocket when I was about 23 years old. The title of this book, which I should really refer to as a booklet, for it’s size, was “The Theory of Relativity”. I had always thought that anything Einstein had pondered was far beyond the reaches of my own personal understanding, and so had not looked into the subject in any depth until that point. If the theory of relativity could be summed up within the meager pages of this booklet, perhaps it was not as unaccessible to me as I had thought. Perhaps, I could indeed understand this, and ultimately have an opinion on the subject.
The booklet was fantastic. I loved every part of it. There were illustrations, and the written content was written in a language I understood very naturally. At it’s most basic level, perhaps it’s only level, the theory of relativity is unbelievably simple to grasp. And yet, it is all relative to the way you think, isn’t it? What is common sense to one is common “nonsense” to another, and those things which you or I can fathom are all relative to the way in which we approach the subject.
All this being said, let’s get back to the conversation at hand. We SEE time move. We FEEL time move (though not always at the same speed) (let’s keep that point in mind, shall we?). We can even HEAR time move, as the clock goes tick, tick, tick. All living creatures are born, “time” passes, the living organism ages, and ultimately dies. We see this in our parents, in our gardens, in the animal kingdom, and in ourselves. But there is a question in all of this…. is the way we see, feel, and hear not relative to the object we are observing and the way in which we observe it? In fact, are the ways in which our senses are engaged at any given moment not relative to how our spirit truly IS?
In the passing of “time”, visible in the cycles of nature, we observe seasons. We observe birth, life, death, and rebirth, over and over, and over again. Does this simple statement itself not elude to the relativity of time? How much “time” has truly passed when we find ourselves at the beginning again?
And what of the occasions at which “time” passes (or is perceived as passing) more slowly or more quickly than “usual”? I watched an episode of “Mythbusters”, which is a really fun show aired on the Discovery Channel, in which a team of trained professionals put common (and not-so-common) myths to the test. It was inevitable that they would one day happen upon the myth of “time flies when you’re having fun”. In the spirit of education, the hosts took it in turn to have “fun” and “be bored”, all the while “measuring” “time”, and the speed at which it passed. As you can imagine, though one man was having a blast and “felt” as if four elapsed hours was one, “time” “moved” at the exact same speed as it had for the man who was bored to tears, having “felt” the four elapsed hours was six. The clock didn’t tick any faster or slower, nor did the sun change it’s natural course of journey. It is all relative to how the time is observed.
This is, of course, a subject which could be debated for hours, if indeed, there ARE “hours”. In the end, if there IS an end, your opinion on the subject ITSELF is relative. The clock says I have been typing for a little over 30 minutes at this point, as the sun, I am sure, would agree (if the sun in fact finds himself limited to matters such as “time”). I, however have observed time in a very different way as that of my clock, for what is merely another 30 minutes to it, is boundless possibility to me.
At the end of your “time” here, this “time” around (for those among us who have faith in the theory of reincarnation), will you look back on your life and measure it by it’s minutes, or by it’s moments? Time is most definitely relative, if only to the person experiencing it.
