by Elizabeth M Young

Created on: March 05, 2010

Without any artificial measure or definition, time is apparent in the changes of the day; from the rising of the sun and its progress toward mid day to the decline of the day and the arrival of dusk, then night, all living things respond to the movement of the sun during the day, and its absence during the night.

Time is apparent in the changes of the seasons, a phenomena that is powerful enough to send signals to plants and animals and humans that major changes in our weather, the length of days, and the temperatures that we enjoy, endure, and survive.

Time is apparent in the rise and decline of living and material things. As growing things begin as leafless trees or seedlings, then progress through the stages to produce fruit, then seeds, we are aware of change that is powerful. As humans grow another few inches or sag a little more, change in people signals us that time has passed.

It is meta knowledge that the passage of time leads to change in all things. Buildings, rocks, ancient things, trees, and the earths crust change. They weather, break down and require repair, move, build up, or erode into disrepair. Each day presents something new and different in all things, even if the changes are subtle and even invisible to the human ability to notice and observe the change.

Time, in the artificial sense, is a human construction. There is the work day. Then there is overtime. Then there is premium time. We not only count these aspects of time in terms of minutes on the clock, we count them in terms of our labor, our income, and the time that we have left in a 24 hour period to get restorative rest and to take care of our personal responsibilities in life.

There is the minute and every fraction of it. In extreme cases, a fraction of a second can be critical to a scientific experiment or an explosion in a combat zone. In the Olympics a fraction of a second can be the difference between a lifetime of fame or a lifetime of obscurity. In other cases, a few minutes can be the difference between a gourmet delight and a foodie disaster.

There is the time of day, with morning having a distinct look, feel and direction that we should be taking in life. There is noon which signals that it is time to rest and to eat. There is siesta, when many peoples of the world close their shops and tend to personal affairs and get rest. There is dusk, when we are cozied up, hopefully, at home and preparing dinner, the children, and ourselves for rest and the next day.

There are "the times", also a human construction. Humans remember eras where unique, major and specific things occurred. There is the era of social revolution, Vietnam, wearing hippie clothes, protesting the system, and listening to new forms of music. There is the era of yuppiedom, when "greed was good". There is the era that is unique to each decade, century or millennium. There are the dark ages, the restoration, the era of European hegemony and oppression of people in far away lands, followed by revolution after revolution and the creation of new nations.

There is the concept of past, present and future. There is the concept of what has happened and cannot be changed. There is the concept of what is happening and how well we are doing with it. There is the concept of the future and how we can affect it.

Finally, there is the concept of time travel, which generally confuses most of us to the point where we gladly stop thinking about revisiting times where things have already gone on, or times when things have not yet had a chance to happen.

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