I’m writing this on what would have been my Dad’s 70th birthday. We lost him May last year, and at his funeral, two things were said to me about him over and over again by the mourners. What a gentleman Dad was (which was nice), and how at 69 years of age he’d had a “good innings”.
69 years of age; a good innings? Well without being flippant I suppose it is better than 68, but not nearly as good as 70.
And I suppose for someone of Dad’s generation with the inherent lifestyle that “war babies” experience, 69 years of life isn’t bad. But this is not a rant about what happened nor a woeful piece on my loss (I’m sure I have one of those in me for future times), but some thoughts on the nature of time, and how we – as humans – don’t really understand it.
For example, we will always consider the American revolution of 1776 as an event from a long time ago (235 years).
Vasco Da Gama’s first exploration in 1497 was another age because our lifestyle is entirely differently today (514 years).
The writings of when Jesus the Nazarene walked on the Earth (2,000+ years ago) describe an ancient world. Yet anthropologists suggest that we as a species first left the plains of Africa about 150,000 before Jesus’ time, which is 75 times longer than the time span between us and Jesus…
So is 2,000 years a long time?
What about 150,000 years? Compared with when the dinosaurs were believed to have been made extinct by a meteor (65.5 million years ago) or indeed how long the dinosaurs were believed to have inhabited the Earth before that cataclysmic event (164. 5 million years) the answer is no. (Which, in completing the circle of figures, is 1,097 times longer than humans have been in existence.)
So the more I think about it, the more I don’t believe we as a species understand time. And why? I believe it is because it is not a man made construct - like justice, politics, belief, or ethics. It is something we as a species cannot control.
Of course, there are many fascinating philosophical arguments about time, including one which argues it does not exist, and this maybe a subject of future thoughts, but in the way most people think of time – as a linear motion where seconds become minutes become hours, days, months and seasons – it is all beyond our control.
Yet we have worked out and when daylight will strike the darkness from the sky tomorrow morning, and we may assume that daylight will arrive at the expected time. For the depth of our knowledge – as a clever apelike creature who has worked out that its home planet revolves around a life giving star, and it takes a specific length of time to do so - is to derive concepts of seconds, minutes, hours etc. But the very nature of time passing is not something in our gift. That linear motion belies the self evident truth that time cannot be controlled, paused nor stopped by the clever apelike creature and never will be.
We are its slave.
So if we can’t control it, how can we understand what it means by a long time? Compared with the eternity of darkness our conscious time alive is a mere sliver of light, and we know not what it means to have a “good innings”.
69 – a good innings? For me, no; the bowler hasn’t even started his run up…
…And in other circumstances, I’m sure Dad would like to have been here today on his 70th to hear this thought.
22/02/2011
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