Time

Well, it is that time of the year: Christmas and soon after new year celebrations.

During these etches in the year- new year, birthday, holidays- I often reflect on the nature of time. No, that is not true. On these days I reflect on my ever fewer years of life.

More truthfully, it is on a very busy day, or a very uneventful day that I reflect on the nature of time. I think to myself: "there's no way time doesn't speed up or slow down." It is not merely a feeling; it instinctively seems True. As well, it is universal: few people watch pots boil or grass grow.

But unfortunately, I cannot make the case that time slows down or speeds up. This is simply because there is no clear conception of time. Is time elemental to the universe like distance and thus to be taken for granted as real and not explicable? That appears to be the physics perspective. Or is it perhaps instead elemental to our thought structure and to be taken as granted as a necessity for my consciousness? That appears to be the post-modern perspective.

How did time begin? With the big bang or with light and god's command? How does time flow? Linear, as quantas, or spherically? Does time dilate and how does it change when interacting with space as spacetime?

Well, I could make the case that time is not real. Many have in the past. Our arbitrary definitions of seconds, days, and years merely show we can see regular patterns and count.

However, it'd be hard to show time speeds up and slows down if I say it's not real. And I dare not play the cooking game by adding all the ingredients and arguing my consciousness somehow alters spacetime. Enough people make millions of dollars on books that glorify our limited minds by claiming consciousness is a force. Half truths multiplied make quarter truths.

Therefore, all I can say is that some moments are quick and others slow. And I assert its change of pace feels as real as time itself.