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Saturday 28 december 2019

Time doesn’t stay in a bottle

By Melissa Martin eos, and history books, but
OHIO, US — We like to ro- time cannot be captured.
manticize a message in a A sunrise and a sunset can-
bottle as it ebbs and flows not be halted by humanity.
with ocean waves. When
the bottle finds a person, The arrow of time, a con-
the message is read. But cept developed by an as-
the passage of time does trophysicist, suggested a
not slow down or speed one-way direction of time.
up. Time on a continent, You can make an egg into
the mainland, an island, a an omelet, but you can’t
country, or a city is still just turn an omelet back into
‘time.’ Time in an airplane, an egg.
on a boat, a vehicle or a
bicycle is still just ‘time.’ Is time an enemy to the
Time spent crawling, walk- earthly body? Or a friend
ing, running, or skipping is to the afterlife?
still just ‘time.” Time travels
on. “Time goes, you say? Ah
no! Alas, Time stays, we
Jim Croce was an Ameri- go.”—Henry Austin Dobson
can folk singer and song-
writer. He wrote “Time in The year 2019 will come to
a Bottle” in 1970. He died an end like the year be-
an untimely death in 1973. fore. Another year gone,
Time is an elusive creature. but not forgotten. The past
year brought births and
The very young yearn to be deaths. Marriages and di-
older. The very old yearn vorces. Graduations and
to be younger. The young retirements. Before, during,
desire independence, abil- after. Yesterday, today,
ity to make decisions, and tomorrow. Phases, stages,
eighteenth birthday free- ages. Tick, tick, tick. Time
dom. The old desire health, travels on.
peace, and more birth-
days. People change. The pas-
sage of time doesn’t
What do the young and old change. The planet
have in common? Time. changes. The passage
We wish time would stand of time doesn’t change. How often do you tell your kids to “hurry steal away our time from face to face re-
still during our utmost mo- The universe changes. The up” or “keep moving?” Hushing, rushing, lating to others.
ments—but it cannot. The passage of time doesn’t and shushing.
young want to travel into change. Burst the busyness bubble with awareness
the future. The old want The Busy Life of Ernestine Buckmeister, a that life is about balance. We can’t save
to travel back to the past. In 2020, we still only get 168 picture book, by Linda Lodding is about time in a bottle and pour it out when in a
Both young and old desire hours per week. That’s it. a child with too many activities. “Her well- pinch. We can save up vacation days but
to change time. No more. No less. What will meaning, busy parents have packed her not time.
you do differently with your after-school hours, turning Ernestine into
Humans cannot control or time? the over-scheduled poster child of today.” “Whether it’s the best of times or the worst
boss time around. Although Ernestine just wants some time to play. of times, it’s the only time we’ve got.”—Art
humans developed clocks “There’s just not enough www.flashlightpress.com. Buchwald q
and calendars, time serves time in the day.” That’s the
no human being. Time ulti- mantra of many people Intense time pressure and impractical
mately becomes our mas- around the globe. Wake- deadlines can lead to mood changes,
ter. We can manage our up. Do the day. Sleep. And poor decision-making, and feeling over-
activities but not time. repeat each day until the whelmed. What’s the cure for employ-
weekend. And cram so ment busyness and burnout? Are you too
Alas, the hands on the many goings-on into two busy to find the solution?
clock only go forward and days that by Sunday night
never backward. The brain you’re exhausted. Is the Being more organized may help, but
goes back in time, sort of, to-do list too long? Back- doesn’t slow down or stop time. We op-
as we remember memo- to-back obligations with erate under the fallacy that when things
ries. Events, celebrations, no downtime is a recipe for settle down, we’ll have more time. Really?
and happenings are cap- stress. Put a no-no on that Melissa Martin, Ph.D., is an author, columnist,
tured in photographs, vid- go-go. We allow television and technology to educator, and therapist. She lives in US.