Time to Consider Time

Greetings, my beloved Pangeans! I trust this fiery, hot summer has been a time to shed your clothes, cool down in our creeks and ponds, and engage in feral celebrations of God’s gifts bestowed upon you! Oh, yes! I remember several thousand years ago when the Peaks of Otter spit lava into the Roanoke Valley. It was as if we were living in the Valley of Heat and Lust. What a time that was for a Pangean to be alive!!

Anyway…

In my last slog, I reflected upon considerations of Space, which one certainly should consider when studying the “Big Picture”.

Now, it’s Time to Consider… Time.

When we reflect upon our past, we often refer to what an unbelievably long and wild ride it has been.  However, one must understand that the whole of Life’s experience gained on Mother Earth is a very narrow, short and shallow impression.

Pictured above are the only clocks ever found at Pangea. They were left behind by rather boorish visitors who were ridden with arrogance and wrongly believed they were enlightening us. Ultimately, they overstayed their welcome and were escorted from the Royal Gardens in the middle of the night. 

We decided to keep their Time thingamajigees, so we could monitor how the outside world uses Time. We know how to use the rather primitive devices, but they make little sense to us. They’re more like curiosity pieces for our children, since even casual observers know Pangeans don’t perceive Time in the same way as those who live beyond our borders. 

We’ve displayed them in a forest glen which we call, “Time Forgotten”. Our children of Pangea (such as Princess Isla, shown pictured above) find amusement and wonderment in their observation of such crude and restrictive devices. 

Time After Time

Time is such an amorphous, elusive construct. It seems in humankind’s pursuit of greater understanding of Time … the pursuit occurs Time after Time. Yes, Time is a construct…by humankind. Time is measured by humankind and premised on a beginning and an end. Why is that the basis of our framework? The universe is platted based on time; yet we do so without confirmation of a starting point. All that we measure is in mid-flight. We do not understand the launch point(s) or the Time necessary to reach the destination, or if there is even a destination. Humankind is operating within a paradigm of Time that works within our paradigm of Space, but conventional wisdom toward both Space and Time can be easily called into question. Yes, every so often, a gifted thinker overturns conventional wisdom, and humankind sets out in new and exciting directions of discovery. What was once thought impossible is now possible…Time after Time.

Humankind is prone to finding psychological grounding through adoption of conventions that were formed based on incomplete data. A few examples from the past: conventional worship of Greek Gods, popular belief in confinement to a Flat Earth, common perceptions of a canopy just above our heads seen as the sky, fear and avoidance of sea monsters thwarting exploration, hunted witches cursing others and burning at the stake, and so on. Each of these seemingly ridiculous references were generally and seriously accepted at some point in human history. Yes, such views are promoted with furrowed brows, knowing looks, dismissive smirks aimed at others…by “thought leaders” who couldn’t find either cheek with both hands. Centuries later, humankind is still prone to the same psychological compensations, but fortified with even greater scientific hubris.

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The known universe is believed to be about 14 billion (human) years old, and Mother Earth is believed to be about eight billion years old. Aside from Pangeans, humans only date back about 300,000 years ago, or about 15,000 generations. Even if that supposition is believed to be true, one is left kinda’ wonderin’ what happened before the whole thing started up? From what?

Humankind’s relatively short Time of existence makes us Cosmic Newcomers! And, if singularity marked universal inception, we are still clueless as to the origin of singularity. Maybe it’s all wrong.

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Yes, far more of Mother Earth’s history was made without humankind present. Consequently, very little of actual history pre-dating the arrival of humankind is fully grasped.  While much effort has been put into studying and understanding the ancient past, the whole of archaeology involves a great deal of guesswork and supposition. It’s much like an effort at connecting the dots in front of a green screen.

It’s all so brief and incomplete. Thus far, from the start-up of humankind to the present, the whole of the human story is told in just a small paragraph of cliff notes, within one of many very thick volumes of a book still being written. 

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Furthermore, much of the Human Experience is described inaccurately. There are various reasons for this point of vexation.

One factor is the old adage, “History is written by the victors.” This is generally true.  For example, if American history were written only by Native American authors, what history would those stories tell? Or, what would American history say about Hiroshima, if the story was only told by Japanese survivors? Or, if history was told only by those who were conquered by the Roman, Greek, or Ottoman Empires?

Could human history be altogether misleading? Sigh…

Another factor is that much of history was handed down through storytelling rather than verifiable documentation (written, photographic or digital). Today’s “storytellers”: media pundits, self-appointed experts, scallywags, celebrities, bloggers, journalists, investigative reporters, broadcasters, evangelists, shills, talking heads, sock puppets, etc. are modern-day versions of traveling bards, minstrels, troubadours and ancient Flat-Earth scholars from bygone eras. They posit narratives that are plausible, but which are far from proof-positive of past realities.

Conceit and arrogance carry storytellers far. Yappers, gadflies and busybodies have been around since we took our first footsteps and plenty of folks still hang onto their every utterance. If they say it… with sufficient conceit and arrogance … and often enough… it must be true. Further, even if what they blather on about is true, Humankind often fails to learn from history, which isn’t to say that’s always a bad or good thing. It’s just a thing.

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Human longevity averages a very brief interval or duration of about 70-75 years between birth and death.   Even Pangeans, with our superior genetics and IQ, live only a few thousand years. Relative to the current consensus regarding the Universe’s age, that means one’s experience on Mother Earth is the mere blink of an eye. 

Taking Time into consideration, it is fair to say that humankind’s imprint on the Cosmos is akin to a drunken sandpiper’s footprints in the sand.

Pause

For a few moments, think outside the frame. Don’t think about “What Is”. Consider a few “Different Angles” and a few “What Ifs”. 

One Angle…

Consider that in the next hour you will travel 67,000 miles through Space, while you spin around at 1000 mph … and you, me, and just about everyone else, will be oblivious to what occurs… in the next hour. And, this wild ride never ends!

What If?…

• What if … Time could be controlled? Would measurement of Space in light years and miles per hour be forever altered, maybe even rendered irrelevant? Would Space, currently measured and constrained by Time, no longer be the insurmountable barrier to human exploration and discovery of Mother Earth, or even the Cosmos?
• What if… we could harness propulsive power and casually move in one direction as Mother Earth moved in the opposite direction? What if… time moved backwards or stood still?
• What if… someday, we used Time as a lever? Perhaps, it could be used to reverse illness or aging, or to narrow or enlarge Space.
• What if… everything you’ve been told about Time is wrong? What if the storytelling, to date, is just a small part of the Time cover story?

The “What Ifs” concerning Time offer a tantalizing array of possibilities. Consider that nothing else on Mother Earth is aware of Time in the way that we are or is aware of any calendar. And, before you shrug off such musings, consider the odds of any alien life form using the same measurements of Time as us. So, let’s just skip to the answer: The odds are slim and none. So, what we understand about Time, “Inside the Frame”, is simply incomplete; or, perhaps, simply wrong.

Yes, the more we understand about the meaning of Time, perhaps even the control of Time, the more we may control our own destiny and explore more of Space.

Assessment

Are you aiming high? Do you want to change the world? Go ahead, it’s a noble goal to want to be a positive contributor, to honor the Divine. But, bear in mind, all that you do or don’t do is not going to alter the course of the Cosmos. Yes, the “butterfly effect” from one person’s actions can ripple across Mother Earth. Or, someone may idiotically push a little red button and eliminate virtually all Life on Mother Earth.

However, no matter if big or small, such actions would only mean that humankind would start-up over and over and over, and even such profound moments would still be just a few ticks on the Cosmic clock. Universal Time, as we know it… is “Eternal” …  for whatever meaning the concept of eternity holds within our limited understanding. 

It’s all about perspective. Rather than Time being understood as a unit of Earth’s rotation or atomic vibration; perhaps, it is malleable and manipulable. Perhaps, it is nothing. Considering these possibilities and others, we need to keep our current understanding of Time under close study because it affects everything.

If one recognizes these perspectives, which your King has so generously offered, it is much easier to understand that one’s Life journey is a much more fleeting, and much wilder and more unbelievable ride than most of us even know. So, yes, of course one should understand that the search for the meaning of Life certainly warrants ongoing investigation of both Space and Time.

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When I speak of Time, I am trying to awaken you to a wider range of possibilities. The Time will come when your personal investigations and evolving view of Time will be a great gift to yourself. 

Ask yourself… were current conceptions of Time conceived by humankind, or were they delivered by the natural world?  That’s right, Time is a human conception; and, therefore, subject to misconception.

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Still, yourself. Gift your twenty-, fifty- or eighty-year-old self some time alone. Take some Time each day, in a personal Space, to just sit or kneel, and consider your place in Time and Space. On one such occasion, the following poetic rant became a whispered gift to me, which I’m now happy to share as a gift to you.

Time’s Up!

My beloved Pangeans, consider the All of it All!  Surely one can see that living within a box defined as “Space and Time” and measured by humankind, is most likely a human illusion.  Oh, I know, it’s not easy! Bless your hearts! My head hurts, too! OK, until next time…when the Timing will be just right for us to pull all these thoughts together. So, hang on, our assessment of the “Big Picture” is nearly finished!

Skol!