The Essence of Time Edited
Autor: hello123 • May 21, 2015 • Creative Writing • 483 Words (2 Pages) • 990 Views
The Essence of Time - Creative Piece – 370 words[a]
Sandie Ruuskanen
Form: Narrative | Audience: Any | Purpose: To make you think | Tone: Questioning, reflecting, observing | Language: Casual [b]
I’m sure you’ve heard by now that time is a funny thing. As humans[c] we seem to constantly be aware of its presence. Am I late? Am I early? What time does the train leave? What time are we meeting? These are all questions that rule our lives, and they all have one thing in common. Time.[d]
We’ve created units to measure time – hours, minutes, seconds, days, weeks, months; [e]though in spite of these distinct units of measurement, it often feels that time is entirely flexible. It’s moved back in the summer and varies from country to country. It slows down when you want it to speed up and speeds up when you want it to slow down. It’s undeniably our most precious commodity, yet we’re constantly wasting it, and worse, we’re constantly wishing it away. We can’t wait for the week to end, for the holidays to begin, for the day to be over. And it’s only when we’re faced with a deadline, when our time becomes limited, that we truly appreciate its value. [f]
In truth, time itself is an illusion. It’s just a scale that we created in order to measure our days, and ultimately, our lives. Before we had hours and minutes we had dawn and dusk. But before then? Before humans? What was time? Animals have no need for it[g], so why do we? Why do we feel the need to know when? Imagine if there was no measurement for time - if we used the sun and the moon rather than AM and PM. If we determined seasons by the weather, not by a calendar. [h] What if we took the time of day to actually take the time out of the day? I wonder how much of this precious time we’d save not worrying about time, not thinking about time, not looking at the time. Would there be chaos or would there be peace? [i]Would we finally be able to slow down and take a minute, or a sunset, to really enjoy our lives? If there was no such thing as time - if we could stop rushing, stop stressing, stop hurrying - maybe then we’d be known as something other than ‘the human race’.[j]
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