The Nature of Age & Time
For most of my life I have been fascinated by how we perceive time. It is becoming even more of a focus as I age and my own time on Earth grows shorter.
In a recent conversation with a friend who is around 23 years old, I was recounting a story of going to the New York World’s Fair in spring of 1964. I wasn’t quite 13 as my family boarded a train to shuttle us across the country from Berkeley, through Chicago, and on to Grand Central Station in New York City. The story had to do with my passing by a blind man playing the accordion with his dog lying next to him as he stood on the wooden platform leading to the fair. I have had a lifelong regret for not buying a pencil from him at that moment and can still clearly see him as he played a tune on his accordion, hoping for a bit of kindness from a stranger.
After telling this story, I realized the incident took place 62 years ago. And in my inimitable way, I began to play with numbers. I recalled myself at 23 years old (which does not feel like that long ago) and placed myself into a fictional scenario discussing some memory with someone who would have been 74 at the time. I then realized this imagined person would have been 12 when the Titanic sank and 16 around the time of the First World War, which seems almost ancient in many ways. In a juxtaposed situation, I could have been that 74-year-old talking to the 23-year-old me back in 1974 and hearing about his personal experiences leading up to the “War to End All Wars”.
This is not the first time I have entertained these kinds of thoughts. For the past 20 years I’ve toyed with writing a book containing historical facts along with accompanying photographs. The title would be; Time Reconsidered. The idea came to me in February 2006 when my wife and I were visiting Jerusalem and were told about the walls around the center of the city. The original walls, built around 500bce, had been razed in 1500 and then rebuilt in the 1530s. This made the current iteration less than 500 years old. So again, playing with numbers, I realized that if someone were to line up centenarians (those who live to 100 or older) back-to-back, those walls would have been rebuilt just five lifetimes ago. A seeming blip in generational history.
So the idea was born of creating this book where I would produce portraits of people who are around 100 years old and place their lifetimes in an orderly line where each person would represent a lifetime going back into history. Five people’s lifetimes to have met Leonardo DaVinci, eight lives to the Magna Carta, twenty to the purported time of Christ, and only fifty people to take us back to several hundred years prior to the building of the great pyramids of Giza. Suddenly I realized that ancient history was not as ancient as we imagine it to be. In my mind time became condensed and I understood that we are actually much closer to the beginning of recorded history than we think.
Many of our ancestors (though certainly not all) joined the great diaspora and migrated out of Africa 70,000 years ago, or just the lifetimes of just 700 people. This was also around the time we began to develop language and were just beginning to use fire for a variety of purposes. In addition, if the population of a city such as Des Moines were all centenarians, their combined years would take us back to the time of that dinosaurs were the dominant species. And lastly, if someone took just two years from each individual of Earth’s current human population, and placed those years back-to-back, we would end up reaching the very beginning of time, to the Big Bang and the creation of all that is known. WHEW!
The relativity of time and age are also always close at hand. When I was in my thirties, I would see someone who is my current age and think that they must be really old. Interestingly, in some respects, they were “older” than I am at this same age. Going through the Great Depression wore people out. They aged because of the stress of World War 2, of the economic conditions of the dust bowl era, and the desperation of trying to survive. I believe these events would age anyone at a faster rate.
There is also a young/old divide that apparently lasts a lifetime. It seems that until one reaches into their upper nineties, there is always someone who is older who will refer to those 10 years their junior as a youngster. My friends who are in their 80s scoff at me when I call myself old. “You’re only 74”, they say, “What do you know about being old?” On the other hand, I know a few people who are close to or over 100 who look at my 80 something friends and react similarly to their disparity in age.
Ultimately time moves differently for all of us. When I was younger, older people would tell me that their days were flying past. At the time it didn’t make much sense to me, but if that’s what it felt like for them, it wasn’t for me to disagree. Now that I have reached an age that many others consider to be elderly, I do feel the shortness of each day. The months flow into one another and sometimes I’m not certain how life can pass by so quickly.
I believe this feeling occurs because when I was twenty, a single year was ten percent of my life. And now that same length of time represents one and a half percent of my entire life. My sense is that the less time a year represents in one’s life, the shorter it appears to last.
And so it goes.
Let me be the first one to jump into the pool.
Some philosophers conclude that time is a psychological construction. Minds and bodies fabricate not just the concept, but the felt, granular texture of time. Your rendering of the perspective(s) of duration from a number of temporal vantage points is convincing enough.
Temporal measurements (100 years = a lifetime) are abstractions which we’ve agreed upon.
Perhaps measuring time is a way of passing time. Wide of the point as would be assessing time’s quality. What does a day-of-work mean if the worker is in company with others of high morale and shared good will? How about the same 8 hour workday if one is alone, grinding out a meaningless task, better alternatives being slim to none… The comparison is heaven to hell.
Quality of time has been all but ignored by our profit-oriented society which has reduced almost everything work related to numbers.
Each gets just one throw of the dice, and yes, time “flies.”
My Dear Jerry,
Thank you, as always, for your opinions and for your continued encouragement in this heady process of offering my thoughts to the world. I know that I need to alter my expectations with these weekly pieces. I had the grandiose idea that my ideas and thoughts on life might help both myself and others to garner a better understanding of our environment. Instead it is apparently mostly for myself, as it should be since expectations are both destructive and unfair with regard to changing or expanding the minds of others.
In terms of time, two very different thoughts to add here. One is that many people travel as they reach retirement or an older age. Personally, I have found that when Rachel and I do take a journey, time slows down. The hours, days, and weeks, seem extended and the experience of seeing new sights and exploring our own curiosity does give us an extension. Second is that I remember reading about how time itself is altered by the speed of light. That the faster we travel relative to others who have a fixed timeframe slows time for those traveling closer to 186,000 miles per second. This was apart of Einstein’s theories which have since been shown to be true. A peculiar aspect of the 5th dimension.
To write in order to achieve expression to feelings inscribed within our bodies, – is a process of self-education. To write something is accessible, and for me, effective in forming what prior to words was without definition. The words find traction… Will anyone else find what I have written useful? That’s not my business.
I agree with your observation about the texture of time upon traveling to unfamiliar places. Time slows for me as well, because everything is new. I dwell upon as much as possible for as long as possible. I also feel as if I am leaving part of my heart behind when I must depart. I look forward to returning as there remains a richness for further exploration.
Yes, Einstein described the relationship between space and time. I doubt if I will ever understand his two theories of relativity. But I feel enchanted afresh with each opportunity to revisit and learn more.
I have always been fascinated with timelines. I would love to see what you described in visuals. I think I see these generations of 100 year old people figures waving good bye and passing batons of various types.
Resentments. Enlightenment. Curiosity. Kindness. Ignorance. Cruelty. Goodness. Trauma. Creativity.
Hi Georgia,
Thanks for your comment. I believe that we do pass along many of the characteristics we accrue over our lifetime to a younger generation, both through the instruction process (nurturing) and through genetics (nature). In my yet to be created book, I have always envisioned at least one photo of a centenarian holding a newborn (great-grandchild?) to demonstrate an actual physical connection. Whether the book ever comes to fruition is doubtful. As noted, I’m tired much of the time these days and my confidence in my own ability to complete a project has diminished precipitously over the past few years. Still, it’s an interesting idea.