Memory in Time
The Time and Reality Series
What is Time?
We measure time by change.
We count birthdays. We count the seasons, sunrises, and sunsets.
We see our hair turn white, our children grow up, and our grandchildren born.
None of those measures qualify as time. We know of time because of passage of it. The transitions that we see and experiences we have tell us time exists.
A calendar or a watch does not capture time as a thing. We know time as an effect, but never in its totality. We cannot see the whole of time.
Our choice is to embrace time as a friend or an enemy. The choice there reveals our own sense of place in time. Does my life matter? Do the lives of the people I know, live with, care about, and engage in work matter? Time points to how we view ourselves in the totality of existence.
I know people who shudder at the thought of a long life. There are others, like myself, who want to live as long a life as possible because of the opportunities that time brings.
Our connection to time is always seems to be in the moment. We can acknowledge the continuity of time while feeling like it is simply realized in the present moment. There is much to understand about time that is not available to us. What we must do is turn away from time as an experience of an abstract concept, and look at the effects of time. For them, we can see ourselves in time.
Subscribe to see in this post:
Memories at the Intersection of Time.
The Difference between Short-term and Long-term Memory.
Memory Remembers.
Generational Memory.