The Absent Uncle: Thinking about ... time

Have you ever had a day in the future that you literally had a countdown going on inside you until that day arrived? I suspect we all have had those internal clocks set. Whether it be Christmas when you were a little kid, a planned vacation, a major life event (wedding, birth, graduation) and all of these are positive – looking forward to the day.

And we have our negatives. A dentist appointment, tax payments, an onerous event like the prep for a colonoscopy (who could look forward to that with any positivity?), and maybe a task that just isn’t something you want to do but have to.

That’s the thing about time. It passes; nothing stops it. It can seem like time passes slow, or it just flew by. But in any case, it is always 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes in an hour, and 60 seconds to every one of those minutes.

When I was a kid, I used to try to remember a certain time, where I was, and try to put it in my memory. The first time I actually still remember doing this was Thanksgiving 1956. I was 5.

It was a typical November day in Minnesota that year. Cool, cloudy, with a bit of wind. I sat on a large boulder alongside our family farm’s driveway. I committed that moment to memory.

Was it important – not at all – but it was the first time I think I ever thought about time and it’s passing. Henceforth, time was measured, and the realization came that whatever time you thought about in the future it would come. (If you were blessed enough to continue experiencing time – but that is a very different thought for another time.)

But whatever milestone you have set in the future – it will be there – right on schedule.

Lots and lots of these personal points of time have passed for me since that day in 1956 – both good and bad – and I look forward to continuing to look forward watching time pass – right on schedule.