Where does Time go?

As a follow-up to the previous post on time, here's an
interesting article. It's a little long but is a good read, nevertheless.

Where does time go?

LIVING ALIVE By Dero Pedero
The Philippine STAR 10/24/2004


Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so. – Douglas Adams

Man is a creature caught in the dimension of time and whether
we like it or not, we have to live life in linked episodes of
seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, and years.

"Where does time go?"


The Reality Of Time
Thomas Mann says, "Time has no divisions to mark its passage.
Even when a new century begins it is only we mortals who ring
bells and fire off pistols." Yes, time is a man-made concept
for conveniently marking historical events, measuring duration,
and scheduling day-to-day activities. It evolved from man’s
observation of nature’s cycles and seasons. Ancient astronomers
and astrologers took the 365 days it takes the earth to revolve
around the sun to signify a year. Following this logic, time
has to be a variable factor relative to a planet. Thus, a year
in Jupiter is determined by how long it takes to revolve around
the sun, and so on with the other planets.

Time, too, is arbitrary. The Roman calendar is different from
the Chinese lunar calendar and other religious calendars.
The Romans elected the birth of Christ as the major time
demarcation point (BC is before the birth of Christ and AD,
all the years after). The months July and August
were reportedly added at the egotistical decree of the Roman
emperors Julius and Augustus Caesar.


More Realities About Time
Everyone on earth, rich or poor is given the same 24 hours
in a day. (This is one of the few instances of the fairness
of the universe.)

Carl Sandburg says, "Time is the coin of your life. It is
the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it
will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it
for you."

Yes, we’ve heard it said that time is gold; and you can
spend it but not save it. And even if you had all the money
in the world, you couldn’t buy an extra second. Time keeps
moving forward and you can’t make it stand still (except
poetically, of course).

Henry van Dyke writes: "Time is too slow for those who wait,
too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve,
too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love,
time is eternity."


Killing Time And Other Myths
How often we hear people say, "Oh, I’m just killing time."

Alice Bloch retorts, "We say we waste time, but that is
impossible. We waste ourselves."

H. Jackson Brown advises, "Don’t say you don’t have enough
time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that
were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother
Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein."

Benjamin Franklin says: "Lost time is never found again."
With utmost respect to Mr. Franklin, I believe that we could
not actually lose time; we lose the opportunity. And it’s
really hard to find time; we must make time.

If we can’t buy, kill, lose or extend time, what can we do
with it? We can manage it.

Peter F. Drucker warns, "Time is the scarcest resource and
unless it is managed nothing else can be managed."


So Where Does Time Go?
When my friend asked, "If time keeps on rushing forward,
where does it go?" I actually laughed and cut short the
discussion. But the question haunted me all night. For how
do you answer such an enigmatic question? Time rushes; yes,
but where to? The question triggered other logical things
like, "If it goes somewhere, it must come from somewhere."

The truth is that time is actually on a different dimension.
It travels on the time plane that sort of runs parallel to
the physical or material plane. It is limited to a linear
movement and only flies from the past to the present and
hurries on to the future.

Now, this is where man differs from time. Man can live in
the present, imagine the future, and re-live the past!
Through his imagination, man can travel to different
time zones.

I venture to answer the question this way: Time goes to
the future but part of it settles in the hearts and minds
of people as remembered feelings and memories of that
particular moment.


The Gift Of Time
Three of the best gifts you can ever give or receive are
love, knowledge, and time...

What do you think?