Friday, September 14, 2012

Let's Do the Time Warp Again

The older one gets, the more time seems to slip away unnoticed.

Many people my age and beyond have made the statement that time just goes faster and faster. It's as much a lament as an observation, for time is a constant. It really comes down to how we perceive it.


I was looking through some ads the other day going over what had been done in the past when I saw a reference to a dealership my employer used to own. That ad was dated 2004 which startled me a little. Eight years have elapsed since those days of selling Chevrolets, then turning around and selling the franchise to a competitor.


Eight years doesn't seem like much unless one is eight years old. But it's a significant portion of time and much has happened since then.


My wife and I met with an old college friend and his wife last weekend to pick apples. When Bob asked me how long it had been since we last saw each other, I told him thirty years. We fell silent for a minute contemplating that. There was no wringing of hands and teary-eyed statements about time flying by. However, we both seemed to be struck by the magnitude of it. After all, thirty years is ... THIRTY YEARS!
 

We picked up with each other as if it had only been a few weeks and had a good time.

I know that my father-in-law passed away four and a half years ago, but it still seems somewhat fresh even if I contemplate everything that has happened in the time since. And I see people post regularly on Facebook about loved ones dying knowing full well that there will come a day when they will move beyond the mourning only to look back and say, "Has it really been that long since Nana died?"


Yes, the time warp will stun them as well.


I liken it all to building a skyscraper. Every year of one's life is a story. The more stories that are built, the further away from street level one gets making it all become indistinct.


The irony, I suppose, is that aging seems to make even more recent years become blurry much faster than they did before.


Perhaps that's because we've built our skyscrapers into the clouds.


That would explain this fog that seems to fill my mind more often.


Where has the day gone?