The perception of time, within myself and in the way others speak about it, is an interesting topic. We are in mid-July. Around July 4th, people may say “Oh, Fourth of July already. Summer is half over. Time to get ready for school. Fall is coming.” I find such comments humorous, an exaggeration, a way of jumping ahead of ourselves. The Fourth of July is, after all, in early July. Really, more than two months of summer remain. Why not make good use of this season, which is short enough in our upper Midwest?
But this is a small example of what we do with time perception. Depending on what is happening, the same period of time can seem to go way too fast or painfully slow. A week’s vacation zips past. A week in the hospital seems to drag on and on. An hour in the dentist’s chair holding your mouth open seems much more than an hour!
And then people will talk of “killing time.” I don’t like that phrase and find a touch of violence in it. I don’t believe we should “kill” time, but appreciate it and make good use of it. This can be associated with what people call “boring.” This can be about waiting for something to happen and time seems to drag.
Recently I spent a couple of hours in an airport, waiting for my next flight. That could be a potentially boring time. But I spent much of the time walking and sitting around mostly watching people: appreciating all the infinite variety of faces, shapes, sizes, colors. My brothers and sisters. You watch them and wish them well and wonder where they are going.
Some are on happy travels, some have more serious issues in mind, as I did on that day, in connection with a funeral.
One notices the different ways in which people deal with or accept what is going on.
People may complain about the length of the Sunday Mass, and then easily spend three hours watching a Packer game.
Of course, there is no entity called “time” which we can reach out and touch. Time, in a sense, doesn’t exist. We exist; our behaviors exist; our tasks come and go. Somehow, we measure our passage through life on clocks, watches, phones. But what are we measuring? Hard to put a finger on it.
And that is where our perception comes in: the fastness or slowness of events affects us in different ways.
In the spiritual realm, and often in the psychological, we are invited, in one way or the other, to appreciate the present moment, to focus on what is, at any given time. Of course, even the present moment keeps moving on! The old philosopher, Heraclitus, said you could not step in the same river twice because it is always moving and changing. And so, with time: it, whatever “it” is, keeps moving along.
And yet, it is valuable for our spiritual lives, and for our sanity, if we can dwell in the present, appreciate whatever is going on, notice our thoughts and feelings, perhaps be moved to gratitude. We don’t need to “kill” time or be bored. This is especially important for our lives of prayer: at Eucharist, at contemplation or adoration, doing reflective reading.
And lest there is given an impression that I am talking out of some position of being totally serene and at peace, that is not the case. I am not the Buddha. We all have our moments of frustration and anxiety. Waiting can be a challenge, in heavy traffic, at the airport, waiting outside surgery for the next report.
But the invitation remains. Call ourselves back to the present moment. Appreciate the people and things around us. Be grateful for small things. Early July is certainly not the foreboding messenger of autumn. Maybe we can tell ourselves at any moment: “Have a good time.”
-Fr. Tom Zelinski, OFM Cap.