I want to try to be aware of, and in harmony with, the steady flow of time. When are we pleasantly aware of it? When we concentrate on time, as in waiting for a program to end or a phone call to come in, we are aware of time or we repeatedly check on its flow. But I at least tend to be impatient and want the time to flow by faster.
I can't prove that time flows evenly at a constant rate. I think it does. I have listened to Prof. Sean M. Carroll's Great Course called The Mysteries of Physics: Time but I am afraid I didn't get much of an insight into time. As I remember, he defines time as that which is measured by clocks. Using that definition, I suppose time flows evenly, at the rate of 60 seconds to the minute. But I have read several times of Einstein's explanation of the relativity of time. He said that an hour in the company of your girl friend seems like a minute while a minute sitting on a too-hot radiator seems like an hour.
It is well-known that our minds' perception of time's speed of flow is affected by our circumstance, our feelings and our goals. I was looking through my experiences to see when I seemed most in harmony with time. Maybe it is when I am waiting for eggs to be boiled long enough. I watch the water in the saucepan bubble a little at first and then gain momentum as the heat spreads through the water. It is more or less continuous but unhurriend, like the times of my life, I think.
If I lived beside a flowing stream, I might try attuning myself to time by spending more moments watching the water's flow. When we have lived on the shore of the ocean, the endless roll of the waves does not suggest a linear flow as much as back and forth oscillations, which ought to suggest the flow of time but doesn't do it for my brain. The graphic that shows the progress of a download works, suggesting a growing line like my life's line but I don't plan on downloading very often.
I am going to boil more eggs.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
