All Time is Relative

Time is relative, or so Einstein theorized. Every individual, every cell, every everything judges or marks time according to its own circumstances. Well. If time is a subjective, why are we always so cognizant of it and driven by it?

I just read an article that the world is spinning faster than it ever has and June 22, 2022, was the shortest day ever by several milliseconds. Theories as to the cause seem to be focusing on climate change and the freezing and thawing of ice caps. Some physicists are concerned that time as we measure it will need to change…that a “negative” correction to our clocks is needed…like a leap second instead of a leap year. Programmers and technology experts already have their knickers in a knot about how this might affect everyone, just as Y2K was predicted to change the world and upset the apple cart in catastrophic ways.

I was working in a hospital during the Y2K crisis. Our technological world was upside down and inside out as we prepared for the disasters that were to unfold when our computing clocks were disrupted because no one had thought to prepare for the flipping of the century calendar. Dire predictions at that time for all of us who made no Y2K preparations were a fizzle, and as far as I am concerned, the earth spinning a millisecond faster per day is also a fizzle.

Time certainly is relative, however. Growing up, my mother always said that time would tick along faster the older you got. That certainly is the truth. When I think back to my younger days, lazing in the sun or sledding in the snow, it seemed I would never grow up. In just a millisecond, I have sped through life and am now at the other end of the spectrum, with seconds slipping away at an awe-inspiring rate.

If the earth is spinning faster, and the days are getting shorter, what does that really mean? Does it mean I have less time to cook breakfast? Does it mean the crops will take longer to grow? Does it mean my grandkids will get older more quickly? Does it mean I have less time to tick things off the bucket list?

Just in case, I plan to be as aware of every moment in the remaining seconds, days and years of my earthly life as possible. I plan to try to check off a few of those bucket list items. I plan to spend more time with the ones I love and less time worrying about shorter days and chores to be accomplished. This is a drastic change for me…a person who lives by a list and a schedule and is ten or fifteen minutes early for every appointment. I plan to learn a lesson that has been decades in the making that life is short and time is precious if spent correctly. I plan to spend my time, perhaps not wisely, but certainly personally important, on trips to the mountains, trips to the beach, trips with my grown children and grandchildren, building memories as they say.

I took an item off the bucket list this very week, taking the Cog Railway up Mount Washington. I was at the top of the mountain about 25 years ago with young kids and a cloudy day with snow around the top of the peak, and I don’t remember having the same response to being at the top of our corner of the world. Other things were on my mind, daily tasks of caring for children, running a business and carrying a career on my shoulders were weighing heavy. Time meant different things to me then. But time is relevant, and this week the day was a little more poignant, the trip incredible, the weather mild and balmy for the top of the rockpile, and the views were unimaginably beautiful. I spent many nanoseconds gawking in awe at the world around me. And that the world was spinning a bit faster makes me appreciate that beauty just a bit more than I did in the past. If I had anything to say to my younger self in some time warp, it would be to slow down the spinning. The spinning and the go-go-go of daily life is irrelevant. Time is relevant. Age is relevant, too. Don’t waste either.