Can you spare 10 minutes?

It came to mind to me that I've been failing to meet my goal of posting in this blog at least once a week. I had some pretty high goals of posting three times a week which is great when I feel like I have the time.

Time is a funny thing. It frequently seems like there is just not enough to go around. When that's not the case, it seems like there is too much. Honestly, it seems ridiculous to want to kill time. Time is fleeting enough as it is

A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.
-Charles Darwin

What is it to waste time? Is watching television wasting time? Reading the news? Who says that everything we do must be constructive? Who says watching television doesn't serve any purpose?

Don't get me wrong, I think it's important to unwind sometimes. At a certain point a problem arises though; when you get so wound up that you spend too much time unwinding. Some might just call this laziness, but I would tend to disagree. I've often found in many areas of life that like breeds like. Inertia has proven that a body at rest tends to stay at rest. Rest leads to more rest, and action leads to more action. It seems the way of the natural world.

Think of your last vacation - a series of days off. So often there is so much we plan to accomplish in that time. By the time the vacation reaches completion, you're left wondering what happened to all of that time.

"Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans"
-John Lennon

Consider this. What if you could live outside of time? Not simply life without responsibility, but life without the constraints or motivation of time.

People often recommend living life in the now, being present to life. Perhaps that is the closest we can get to living outside of time. We measure time as we perceive it. Time moves forward in what we claim to understand to be constant. This is what we know of reality.

As time goes, we also understand it to be variable.

"Love vanquishes time. To lovers, a moment can be eternity, eternity can be the tick of a clock."
-Mary Parrish

So what is the truth then? Do we believe what the mechanics of the clock tell us? What is more real than one's own perception? Once we understand that the passage of time is variable, we have two other factors to consider: Time is linear, and time is unidirectional.

"Where does this difference between the past and the future come from? Why do we remember the past but not the future?"
-Steven Hawking

Before you immediately dismiss the above idea as nonsense, please take a moment to let the quote sink in. We dismiss the concept of remembering the future as something impossible based on our own perceptions. We perceive time as linear and unidirectional, so it stands to reason that we cannot remember the future. Let those assumptions go for a moment. Consider that it is possible that time is not unidirectional. Consider how small we are compared to the cosmos; to the rest of the universe. We are but the bacteria on this tiny planet in this tiny galaxy amongst millions of other planets spread throughout millions of other galaxies. Do you think bacteria even perceive the passage of time? Is it possible that we are simply unable to comprehend time at the level for which it exists?

If time is not unidirectional, and time is not constant, then is time still linear? Some philosophers have postulated that every time a decision is made between two distinct options, a dimensional split occurs. In one of these dimensions, the first option is chosen, and a new dimension is formed for each other option that could have been chosen - or indeed had been chosen. It is then possible that time is not linear either.

This brings me back to an earlier point - what if you could live outside of time? The first step in doing this is to break down your perceptions of time. You cannot do it all at once though. You have to weaken your perceptions of time bit by bit. Time is constant, unidirectional, and linear. Tackle one of these features of time that we claim to know, and begin to break it down. I imagine the first would be the easiest. We have all experienced moments where time seems to stand still, or where time seems to go by far too quickly. Time is NOT constant. Once you are okay with one concept, move on to another.

At some point you will begin to realize that perhaps time is an illusion. Is it possible that time is not passing at all? Does time even exist? Is it merely our perception of change around us that we must put into linear order to even begin to understand?

"He causes things to look different so it would appear time has passed."
-Horselover Fat (a character in VALIS by Philip K. Dick)

While I do not believe it possible to escape time completely, I do find it enlightening to step beyond what is commonly accepted for the simple fact that we've not experienced anything different. Maybe the first step to experiencing something different is to be open to the experience. Until we learn to step outside of time, we will continue to abide by it. If nothing else, I hope to have conveyed one simple truth: Time is what you make of it.