Imprisoned by Time
Time. The fourth dimension. The ruler of our lives.
Ancient civilizations didn’t measure time. In school, they taught us it’s because they wanted to keep their status quo. Because they didn’t want changes. It sounds negative. But is it really?
Since somebody decided it’d be nice to measure something new and defined Earth’s movement around the Sun as time, we measure our lives with years, days, and hours. Time was measuring our lives so we ‘measured it back’. Another aspect of life has been quantified, put into numbers.
At first, it was nothing special. People lived their lives the same way as before, they just started using some new words. The breaking point was probably when watches and clocks became available to everyone. It was then that Time imprisoned us. People started scheduling meetings, the rush started.
Our lives are determined by specific hours of the day. At eight we’re supposed to be at work, we have that coffee with a colleague at four and at 6 we have to pick up our children at the music school. We’re born into a world imprisoned by time, we don’t even get a chance to see how it looks outside… We don’t understand the concept of time as children, we only see all the ‘big’ people running around nervously and not understanding our concept of timelessness. It’s funny how we get more and more stressed as we grow up. Actually, it’s our choice. But we don’t have the courage to be that different in the society of sameness, the peer pressure is too strong.
Take a moment to reflect on your day. How many times have you checked the time? How many times have you walked faster not to be late for something again? How many times has the thought ‘I don’t have enough time’ crossed your mind? How many dates and hours have been set that you were supposed to follow, to be somewhere at some exact moment?
We could say time is our ruler.
We can’t buy it. We can’t earn it. We can only waste it. When was the last time you’ve put your watch and phone away for a whole day? When was the last time you weren’t in hurry and had time for yourself? Exactly.
When was the last time you thought, oh, I have all the time in this world to finish that? You were almost right. You would have a limited kind of infinite time to finish this… if only the system wouldn’t want something else from you.
How did it happen we accepted the tyranny of such a ruthless ruler we can’t take power away from? What were we thinking?
We’re already born trapped in three dimensions of space. Why do we, as a society, accept another limitation?
Time, the world’s emperor. It’s hard not to let it control you, but you should take a vacation from Time from time to time. ✌