time

  Man has always sought ways to mark the passage of time. I believe that came with the first onset of darkness, that first evening. How long before the return of light? Then we began to mark days by that. Man watched anxiously for the return of the sun. It was noted that it always returned, in the same spot every day, or so it was believed until the changing of the seasons. That must have caused some concern, a change, something different is happening. The days grew shorter and shorter, and colder. Was the sun disappearing, moving away? Man watched the shadows and prayed to whatever God or power they imagined. And man marked the time.

  One has to wonder why? Why are we so concerned with time? Why do we attempt to measure what we cannot control? Is it important to know how much time has passed, when we can't know how much time there is? Are we waiting for something to happen? Or are we all waiting for a return? We know our time here is limited, it will end, although we don't know when. Is that the time we are trying to measure? If that is the case, why? All we can do is live until time runs out. 

 Man has placed importance on time, the universe has not. We measure time and mark milestones on our passage to wherever it is that we go. Those that believe we go nowhere do that also, as a social construct. I believe time and energy are the same, both never end, only transform. The beginning of time? That can't be, for there had to be a time before that. To designate a beginning would only indicate when we started counting. The end of time? Again, that can't be because there would have to be a time after that. Beginnings/endings are just markers on an infinite line, a defining for a finite existence.

 Our death marks the end of our time, here. Will there be a period of darkness, of uncertainty before a new "dawn?" Will we mark that time? It's my thinking that man will certainly attempt to do so. The belief in life after death hinges upon just that premise. The question is, how long is the darkness? Perhaps the length of that darkness is dependent in some way upon the expenditure of time in this life. Perhaps that is the reason we are so concerned with the measure of that time. It is an instinctive thing, we should spend our time well. A rest well earned perhaps? 

 All we can do is look back at time. To look to the future is to speculate. We have just launched a telescope to look into the past. That's what the scientists say anyway. They are looking to see the beginning of time. Looking to the past to see what is coming? The irony of that isn't lost on me. With the marking of the calendar all we can record is what was. You know that should tell us all something. The past is more important to understand than any speculation about the future. Will it be any different in the future? No, I don't think so, man will still keep marking the past, recording time as an abstract way of understanding our existence. We will always look to the future, to see our past. Happy New Year.