I have long been fascinated by discussions of the concept of time. What is time? What does it measure? Is it real or is it an illusion? Perhaps it is a delusion.
Nathan Palmer in an article entitled “How Time is a Social Construct” suggests that is a social construct. He defined a social construct as “…something that a group of people create and maintain.” He goes on to say that if we are going to understand the concept of social construct, we also need to understand symbolic interaction. He then says that “Social interactionsts argue that we use symbols that have shared meaning to communicate with one another and create reality.”(sociologyfocus.com “How Time is a Social Construct”)
Dr. Demetrios Matsakis at the Naval Observatory suggests that time is the coordinate that helps us understand the evolution of the universe.” (quoted by Mr. Palmer in aforementioned artice).
Professor Warren Meck devised a physiological model for measuring the passage of time. He found the representation of time to be generated by the oscillatory activity of cells in the upper cortex. (Wikipedia - google measuring time).
If one wants to have a lot of fun one can also read about Einstein’s theory of relativity and subsequent theories which seem to suggest a different way of understanding and talking about time.
All this is very interesting, but does not necessarily help us live our life. We humans seems to find it very handy to divide something we will call time into past, present and future (I am deliberately sticking to rough terms). In fact, we seem to spend most of our journey thinking about what has happened in which we will choose to call the past or thinking about what might or not happen in what we will call the future. We are very seldom with each other in a shared reality. Yet it is this shared reality which helps us determine whether we are asleep and dreaming having a lucid dream or are fully awake. When we are dreaming movement, objects, sounds and perceptions seem very real. When we are experiencing lucid dreams it can be even more difficult to tell if we are asleep or awake. In the movie, “A Beautiful Mind” at one point Professor Nash has to ask one of his students if there is another person talking to him or if that person exists only as a delusion.
It is true that we need some social construct which allows us to talk about the spiritual and emotional concept of being present or showing up in the present moment since the present is really all that we have. To me, this means that my focus is on the world as I am in this moment experiencing it. In this moment the only reality is what I am currently experiencing. If I am focusing on the past then I am located in the past and not now present. If I am focusing on the future than I am located in some illusory point or world which may or may not come to fruition.
Obviously, by focusing on what my mind tells me was yesterday I cannot change what happened or did not happen. I suppose I could make up a new version of the past which apparently we humans do with even more regularity than we care to admit.
I also have no control over what might or might not happen in what I choose to call the future. In fact I have no idea of what the future will hold or not hold. Just this morning I read about tornadoes visiting sections of the Midwestern United States, typhoons visiting other areas of the world, snow falling in yet other parts of the world while within the coordinate I current occupying it is very hot and humid. I also read about robberies, scams, shootings, accidents as well as other accounts of how we humans are interacting with ourselves, each other and the rest of the universe.
While reading I was sitting within a particular set of coordinates. Currenty I am sitting in front of my laptop in what I am calling my living room in a villa located in the Health Hills Villa Complex in Dunedin, Florida. The time which my calendar tells me was yesterday does not exist and the time I am worried about in what I call the future does not exist.
What might happen if I could just be present with the orchid which is blooming in my garden, to the knowledge that I had some wonderful “moments” with my friend Cheryl this morning, to the fact that I am able to sit and type, move about, smell the scents in the air, feel the air and talk with a friend via the magic of a cell phone? If I can allow myself to do that I will not be judging what I did or did not do. I will not be thinking about what might or might not happen in what we humans call the future. I will not make you feel as if I am here but not here. I will not leave you feeling alone even though your eyes are sending signals to your brain that there is some object disturbing the pattern of light.
In the absence of all this chatter I might find that my there is no need for the social construct of time except in the way it allows us to playfully explore each other and how we can cherish each other.
I just got off the phone with a lovely young woman who has been mentally beating self up because of the fact that if she had not had an abortion some years ago she would be celebrating mother’s day with that child today. Well, goodness. If she had not had the abortion we do not know whether the child would have been born and lived to the current day or whether she would have lived or … We only know that today she can show up with love and make the best decisions she can. Today she is with a man who loves her and who she loves. For today she and he are in recovery, working and have a good life. For today she can be a loving presence to herself, her partner and the universe as it exists for her at this moment.
In the meantime we can continue to play with the concept of time and other social constructs. That could be great fun but not if we make it a test of our worth which will then take us away from any possibility of new thoughts or ideas arriving in our mind. In order to have new thoughts we must let go of what we call the past and what we call the future. With a twinkle in our eyes we can “be”!
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