Passages-Reflection on Time Jan 3 2016
Welcome to the new year! Poet Dana Gioia tells us that the “new year always brings us what we want simply by bringing us along-to see a calendar with every day uncrossed, a field of snow without a single footprint.” There is no snow but we have been brought along to 2016. We are already into day 3. You have only 362 more days to make this year the one to remember, the one that changed your life. Are you ready? Have you already begun something grand and distinguished? Are you feeling stressed out already?
Our reading suggests that there is a tension between living in the present, and truly experiencing one moment at a time, and the author’s view that humans have a “willingness to draw a line through eternity, to put a before and after mark. To carve a chunk out of the amorphous infinite and say: this chunk is a New Year.” Thich Nhat Han, the Buddhist monk, counsels: “present moment, only moment.” His point of view is shared by many other wise and popular writers and teachers, from many different schools of thought. On the other hand, there is my father, who used to ask with no sense of irony, “What is your five year plan?”
I have discovered that neither approach works all of the time. When one is in the midst of chemotherapy or root canal, marriage counseling, or a terrible break-up, we can only pray that the present moment is not the only moment. Who wants to be present for nausea, pain, disappointment, and heartbreak?
And what about hope? If we live only in the present moment, then hope is not relevant, right? On the other hand, if we live only in hope, if we live only in our plans for the future, we will never live in the present and our life will proceed without us actually being in it. So how do we proceed? If you are feeling anxious or confused about the whole idea of time, know you are not alone. The Christian theologian Augustine, wrote “What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain to him who asks, I do not know.”
In a recent blog on Wait but Why.com, Tim Urban, wrote: Humans are good at a lot of things, but putting time in perspective is not one of them. It’s not our fault—the spans of time in human history, and even more so in natural history, are so vast compared to the span of our life and recent history that it’s almost impossible to get a handle on it. If the Earth formed at midnight and the present moment is the next midnight, 24 hours later, modern humans have been around since 11:59:59pm—1 second. And if human history itself spans 24 hours from one midnight to the next, 14 minutes represents the time since Christ.” (Putting Time In Perspective – UPDATED)
Time is a great mystery, even to the wisest of scientists. Einstein called it an illusion. Hawkins says that it didn’t exist before the Big Bang. And a recent physicist is exploring why time only moves forward. I didn’t even know that that was a question. But let’s bring the subject back to more personal concerns for now.
The reading ended with a suggestion that we spend one day without any clocks or schedules. Just the idea doing that makes me a bit nervous. How will I know what to do if I don’t know what time it is?
The good news for me is that I live with a dog. Dogs are very knowledgeable about time. It is either time for eating, playing, going outside or sleeping. How hard can it be to live in the present moment when you have only 4 options? People, on the other hand, have to work on their taxes and go to the post office and then get groceries. And let’s not even talk about jobs, or hanging out with a toddler. Time can go by at the speed at the light or last for what seems like forever. How shall we spend this mysterious thing called time? It is at once so valuable and such a burden.
I have noticed that the sense of time changes not only with circumstance but with age. In an essay entitled The trials and tribulations of a 66-year-old Val McCrae wrote:
I am on holiday, sitting looking at the sea which today is a deep, dark blue and is shining and calm. People are strolling along the beach. Honestly, the world looks perfect. I have nothing in particular that I ‘should’ be doing and, in my head, I am loving the lack of demands on my time. But some part of me feels restless still.
This is very common for me. The longing to do absolutely nothing conflicting with that driven part of me that wants to be active, useful, involved and busy. It’s a real internal battle. There’s quite a strong fear inside me of an elderly, lazy overweight blob with stiff knees and hips and nothing useful to do, who is just waiting for the chance to appear and take over my life.
I could read, write, watch DVDs, have more coffee – but oh, I surely ‘should’ move, walk, get fresh air. I could take a nap as I am so tired – but oh, I may not sleep properly tonight if I do. I could have a little snack to cheer me up – but I’m trying to lose weight, aren’t I?”
I am not quite as old as our author but I can completely understand the internal conflict she describes. After all, there are people like Allan Law in the world.
I read about Mr. Law on the internet and learned that he is known as “The Sandwich Man” because he hands out over 500,000 sandwiches to the homeless on the streets of Minneapolis each year. Allan is a retired school teacher and his efforts to feed the homeless have become a lifelong mission for him. He hasn’t slept in a bed at night for over 13 years because he works the cold Minnesota nights delivering his sandwiches and other comfort items to the homeless. His doctor says this isn’t good for his health but it seems to be great for his soul.” His soul may be great, but he makes me feel inadequate.
Is what I am doing enough? Is what I am doing right? Or appropriate? For those of us with children or parents to take care of, these are not frivolous questions. I cannot give you an answer to how you should spend your time in 2016. But I can urge you to become conscious of it, and thoughtful about it. Tim Urban, the blogger I mentioned earlier, wrote a piece for Waitbutwhy.com, in which he showed graphically, what 90 years looks like, in years, months and days. Then he reflected on some of the activities he enjoys and estimated how much more time he had to spend in those activities. We can do the same thing. If we assume that we are all going to live until we are 90, then simply take 90 and subtract your present age. If you are 60, you have 30 more years. Do you like reading books? Let’s say you are an avid reader and read 2 books a month. That translates to 24 books a year or about 720 more books in your lifetime. How will you choose? If you are 85, the choices seem more important, don’t they?
If you are 40, and your parents are both 70, we can assume they will live another 20 years. If you see them only once a year, that is only 20 more visits! It puts holiday dinners in perspective, doesn’t it?
Let’s say you are 70 and are still in touch with your oldest friends from high school or college, how many more visits can you count on? Will you see them once a year for the rest of your life? That is 20 more visits. Doesn’t seem like a lot, does it?
I offer these scenarios because I want us all to be fully present for our lives, and to do that, we need to make plans. We need to decide what it is we want to spend our time doing, and then do that, and only that. If you feel like you don’t have enough time, stop watching television and get off the computer. It is amazing how long one person can spend watching youtube.
Finally, take heed of the words of Henry Van Dyke:
“Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.”
Love the people you love fiercely and well. Surround yourselves with people you love and who love you. This doesn’t mean there won’t be conflict or trouble. Of course there will be conflict and trouble. But you will have companionship for the journey, you will not be alone, and you will be given the strength and the stamina for whatever life brings you. Welcome to 2016! Let’s use it well for ourselves and for all of our brothers and sisters.
May it be so.
CALL TO WORSHIP
Nourish beginnings.
let us nourish beginnings.
Not all things are blessed,
but the seeds of all things are blessed.
The blessing is in the seed.
(Muriel Rukeyser, 1913 – 1980)