The speed of time

Nope.. that's not a typo.... I truly did mean the speed of time.  And while it sounds like some sort of hybrid between 'The Passage of Time' and 'The Speed of Light'.... I meant exactly what I said... The speed of time.  If you think about it, you'll realize you know exactly what I mean.  I'm talking about the fact that the same period of time feels longer - or shorter - to different people, depending on what's at stake, and what's going on.

This notion of the speed of time was brought home to me recently, when an event occurred at normal speed, for me... but for others around me, it felt like a much longer period of time had elapsed.  I briefly thought of the saying 'Time flies when you're having fun'... except that I wasn't having fun.. and then again, time wasn't flying by, it was just -- what's that saying?  oh yeah, it was marching on.  Except that no one was marching, and there weren't any marching bands in the vicinity.

So then I started thinking of some of the sayings we have about time...  There's the phrase 'doing something in your own time'... that one always makes me chuckle... after all, it's not as if you can use someone else's time.  And if you did, whose time would they use?

Then there are the two phrases I already mentioned..  Time flies  (really?  does it fly coach or first class?), and Time marches on  (I envision a big clock head with two legs sticking out and little feet wearing soldier boots).  To my surprise, when I googled images, I couldn't find pictures for either of these concepts, although I did find this alternative view of time flies:

Hmmm... not nearly as funny as the picture of a clock flying first class... but maybe that's just me.

Then, of course, there's Killing Time  (what's the minimum prison term for that?), Saving Time (which bank do you use?), and Spare Time (that's at the bowling alley, and is related to when the clock strikes a certain time).

There's more to life than silliness, though, and there are some serious sayings about time. One of my favorites is "This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it."  That's from Ralph Waldo Emerson.  And to my mind, it's related to the quotation from Ecclesiastes - "There is a right time for everything".

But let me get back to the speed of time.  These last three weeks, I've had a lot going on in my life.... most of it good, some of it not so good.... but everything is working out, and life is starting to return to normal.  These three weeks have simultaneously gone by quickly, but also slowly.  And when I say they've gone by slowly, I don't mean that as a bad thing... I mean that a lot of things have happened, a lot of new memories have been made, and I can't believe we were able to do everything that was done in those three weeks.

And then I  look at my blog posts.  In my head, I've spent a fair amount of time on my blog... I have several partial posts that I started, I have notes for new ideas for future posts, and I've followed up on the postings of those I nominated for the Liebster award.   But as for putting up a new post on Teapot Musings -- I've only done that once.  You see, the speed of time got out of control for me. Things happened both faster and slower for me, than for the rest of the world, and I temporarily got out of sync.  I'm not saying that's a bad thing.... it's just a thing.  These last few weeks were a good time, and I knew what to do with them.  But "now" is the right time to get back on course.  Among other things, that means a few more blog posts.  So with a nod to Mr. Emerson, and a nod to Ecclesiastes, I'm back on track and back to my tea.