Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Time Capsule

If I were to choose one thing that I take for granted the most, I would have to say that it's TIME. Yes, TIME -- the same TIME that we think we have loads of just because we think it's always there. I'm quite guilty of pushing aside many things for "when I have more time" because I just happen to have better things to do at the moment. However, it never really occurs to me that time, as we get older, becomes a privilege or a luxury more than a concept that you try to waste or kill -- as illustrated by the follies of our youth.

The nature of my work requires me to pay attention to day-to-day events in global economics and politics. One would think that I, of all people, would be the most likely candidate to be aware of the time passing by everyday. Sure, many issues I deal with are time-sensitive and are bound within timeframes, but in actuality, it makes time pass by faster than ever. Because my mindset is constantly fast forwarded to these designated times, I tend to ignore the bouts of time that exists in between. And the next thing I know, the day is already over -- and afterwards, I would have trouble comprehending where my day just went.

Everyday is plagued by the lack of time -- never enough time to do everything. And to make matters worse, whenever I think of tomorrow, I think of the things I would have to accomplish thereby fast forwarding my brain to the end of tomorrow, without it even starting yet.

Smell the roses? Talk to my secretary... (the imaginary one sitting on the imaginary desk next to mine)

Just the other day, as I was rifling through my mp3 collection, I found some songs that I listened to in my late teen years -- give or take, the second half of the nineties. As I was going through memory lane with nostalgia in tow, I suddently realized that most of the songs in there were almost ten years old. Ten years! A decade! I could have had ten kids by now (in theory, at least). It couldn't have been that long now, can it? I mean, ten years ago for me was still the 80's -- tight pants, big hair and bright pink lipstick. Who was the jokester that moved the hands of the clock ten years too fast?

Listening to the oldies station at work includes listening to Take That, Selena, R.E.M, Simply Red and the Spice Girls, for crying out loud! Did we not witness these artists rise towards the top of the charts? Has it really been that long? Whatever happened to the real oldies like the Bee Gees or Chicago? And what's pretty scary is when you hear cover versions of songs that you knew the original of -- and worse, you own the album of. There should be a rule that songs cannot be covered unless the original artist who originally performed it is dead. Seriously...

We all have memories to fondly look back on in past years and decades. I reckon that there is always one special year or period in our lives that we keep going back to. And from then on, we would never age. I will always be nineteen years old in my head. My years between twenty to twenty-five is just one big blur of time where I'm not exactly sure what happened. All I know is that one day, I woke up, and I'm already twenty-five... and the day before that, I was nineteen.

Where does time go? I'd like to go find it. I don't want to wake up again one day to find out that I'm already sixty... without realizing how I got there.

I always take it for granted that I will always have a tomorrow to look forward to. What if I don't? I get so consumed with all the routinary things in life that I tend to brush away those that really matter. If I have time for the mundane stuff, shouldn't it follow that I make time for the more significant ones? It's a simple concept... but how come very little of us practice it?

I cannot agree more with Will Rogers when he said: "Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save."

Ironic, isn't it?

49 Comments:

Blogger :-) said...

... Talk to my secretary... (the imaginary one sitting on the imaginary desk next to mine) ... roflol ... you need help if you gonna keep writing this stuff all the time ... opps did i mention time ... there it goes again ... cheers ... ;p

9:46 PM  
Blogger Cuckoo said...

Well said.
Sometimes when we look back we just can't think what happened during some of the years. it comes out blank w/o any account.

10:18 PM  
Blogger Aditi said...

0oh my gosh.. i coudlnt agree more.. that sometimes it feels that time just flew and it couldnt have been that long now could it?
but u're right one of the most important things is time

10:33 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Ironic it is.

As for the follies of youth. What use is a youth without follies :)

Thx for dropping by my blog.

10:47 PM  
Blogger Momentary Madness said...

Yes, saving time, to spend time (to be left with no time in the end). I can just about grasp it, but not fully comprehend it.
It's like the concept of being happy. To be happy I was told was to be in what happens-in the moment. Happiness seems to be synonymous with Time.
You point out the humourous side of (the human) dealing with time and how rediculous it seems the more we emanin it; for the more you examin it, the more you realise, time does simply not exist- as we imagine.
As you (so nicely put it "smell the roses / reflect) get the older you begin to glimpse the folly of yesterday, tomorrow and the day after; it becomes a tedious affair.
I thing you are just over the hurdle of no tomorrow, no sixty, seventy, you're there right now.
Y:-) Paddy
PS: I rushed this a little I do hope it doesn't sound too spacey; they're calling me for our family sauna so I best go Cheers!

11:15 PM  
Blogger Yoda said...

I went through my music collection too y'day! It was such a trip down memory lane :-) All my 80s, 90s collection seems so refreshingly new all of a sudden.

I think there's enough time for everything. What is required is to manage our time more efficiently. We humans make lousy time managers, 'coz our concentration lapses. An average person has a span of almost 3 seconds before their mind wanders off. Why do you think the "HEAD ON APPLY DIRECTLY TO FOREHEAD" commercials are so successful? :-p

LOL!

11:37 PM  
Blogger Vishesh said...

time is the toll inside which we all are...if you ask me we can escape the trap.....but i think that there is nothing you cannot get over...you just need to be friendly with it....try saying ha it is 12 ...hi so you are here..i know i have to sleep....

it is the basic nature for all of us to grow mentally wise every second.....every one can be youthful if they try....

but i admit it hurts when people tell you are old...people ask me in which coll do i study and i am only 15!!

11:45 PM  
Blogger shnaggy said...

there are times we think are wasted.
but wasted times have stories to tell.

time is gold indeed.

12:11 AM  
Blogger M@ said...

Money is meant to compensate for loss of time, in many ways.

Making more money tends to compensate a bit for my loss of youth....

But I just read this article in Utne Reader not long ago about how richer people have been working longer hours and the poor have been making gains in that other wealth indicator: leisure time.

12:16 AM  
Blogger Mel said...

Read this book: Replay by Ken Grimwood. I practically had a life altering experienece while reading it.

1:19 AM  
Blogger Craig D said...

Danged straight!

Every day just seems to disappear down the same rat hole.

5:15am~6:40am- Wake up, get ready and leave for work.

7:00am~5:30pm - Work

5:45pm~8:30pm - Dinner, watch daughter

8:30pm~?pm - Do chores, go to bed.

REPEAT!!!!

8:30

1:39 AM  
Blogger Cherie said...

You are wise to consider your perception of the passage of time. It makes a HUGE difference in whether you live your life in a trance, where time is unnoticed and wasted, or live your life awake, and aware, which leads to looking back at your life and KNOWING where the years have gone. No regrets.

Great post - great thoughts.

2:18 AM  
Blogger Jose said...

We definitely have to start using our time wisely, the future may look so distant and we may think we have plenty of time, but if I think back say about 25 years ago the images in my head seem like they just happened yesterday.

Now Bee Gees and Chicago two of my favorite groups of all time, yeah they been around for a long time but I still don't call their music oldies.

3:41 AM  
Blogger Nabila Zehra Zaidi said...

Probably that is the reason why people say... 'Live every moment' :)

Remembering or forgetting, it is not about that..it is simply about being in that moment being happy doing whatever you want to... :) We just let other 'responsibilities' overshadow our desires or vice versa, that leave us thinking time has gone by....

Nice and interesting blog :)

4:19 AM  
Blogger bornfortheu.s.a said...

a thought provoking post. I never realized how much time matters before this! time is the least of my worries but now i realise that i'll never get these moments back.

Nice n thnx for dropping by!

4:35 AM  
Blogger darkfoam said...

never mind...
i won't even tell you the bands i listened to when i was a teen.....
sigh..
but, do relish your time.
because, man, i'm tellin' ya....
decades zoom past.

5:00 AM  
Blogger HippieChyck said...

i still can't believe it's been 9 years since i finished school. but i haven't even finished reading all of the assigned texts...

5:02 AM  
Blogger `NEFTY said...

I HATE wasting time... but mostly I hate it when people waste MY time lmao.
This part you wrote is so on line, "If I were to choose one thing that I take for granted the most, I would have to say that it's TIME. Yes, TIME -- the same TIME that we think we have loads of just because we think it's always there."

5:21 AM  
Blogger mathew said...

Talk to my secretary... (the imaginary one sitting on the imaginary desk next to mine)


ROTFL!!!

put up a serious thing in a quite humourous way!!

btw u remind that am gettin older too!! ;-(

5:28 AM  
Blogger minijonb said...

all those songs will be with you forever. savor those moments. as far as the time issue goes, i got nuthin' for ya, man. i don't know how i make it through a day.

great post.

5:52 AM  
Blogger fifi said...

oh, Princess!
the constant motif of my very existence.

My baby is ten. A month is five minutes. All my anecdotes seem to date from a decade ago- so fast!

Strange how time shoots by, it's dizzying and gives me vertigo.

Not long ago I had a moment where I felt so terrrified that the entire century as rushing down the plughole.
I walked into the office at work, and quit my job.
I made big changes_ those things which were inportant t my soul were given privilege.

I found those who were important, and told them so.

If the world ended for me tomorrow, there would be nothing left unsaid. You never know what time will do.

6:21 AM  
Blogger Nadim said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

6:24 AM  
Blogger Nadim said...

cant relate to 10 yrs... its a lotta time! but i feel like my last 5 yrs are missing! Seriously, was i in coma? especially last 1 yr!!! where was I??
may be someone drugged me and under that influence sleep walked through! thats ironic cos last 1 yr has been the toughest in my life and unforgettable!! i only have a very few traces of last yrs memory! time seems to fly away so fast!

now im wondering if i am makin any sense at all!

6:29 AM  
Blogger broadwaybabe said...

this song is called "the wrong time capsule"--------------------
When you hunger number one,
It's no wonder under fun.
Don't be mean to see the green.
You get caught in the machine.
You're caught in the machine.
Here's a message she would say,
"Don't forget me yesterday
'Cause today's no place to stay.
Will you spirit me away?
Bend the machine,
See the pendulum swing and go in between.
Skip the waves, syncopate.
Forwards, backwards.
Olulululu..."

6:31 AM  
Blogger meggie said...

Time is a very interesting topic!
My mother was always 'late'. My sister is always late.. she says time means nothing to her...
Perhaps my time is almost gone.

7:44 AM  
Blogger Keshi said...

In my head I live a timeless life...

Keshi.

9:51 AM  
Blogger Kati said...

Very thought provoking, and true. I work at a library, and we consistently check out books for 28 days from "today's" date, for return. It seems to cause time to fly past at an even faster rate than it did already, consistently thinking about a date one month into the future.

Thanks for stopping by my blog & commenting on my bags! It's nice to hear that other people realize the need for them (and like the look of mine *grin*).

10:05 AM  
Blogger little boxes said...

nice times pass in a blink nad bad times stay...
that's life for me!!!
nice piece of writing there...

10:05 AM  
Blogger AVIANA said...

HI CHICA!!!
I could not agree with you more. I've been going through my quarter life crisis and it's starting to hit me big time. I'm done with school and lived my entire life for my parents' dreams. Now I'm trying to start my life and it's really difficult because my parents' dreams will always hold me down (i.e. $170,000 in school loans!!!).
I know that time is going by fast because I'm rushing to live out my dreams. All I do is music, work, music, work. Although I'm glad i'm inching towards my music dreams, i realize that the little things are passing me by like having a boyfriend, a good network of friends, trips to some hot locale with a group of friends and sitting in central park in the middle of the day.
i won't hope...i will make these things happen. thanks for reminding me of how precious time is... :)
p.s. yeah i really like Lavinia too!
lisa

11:16 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ha I know what you mean. It seems I was just a teen listening to the hot tunes...now I *have* a teen that thinks my hot tunes are way retro...

1:17 PM  
Blogger Anu said...

hey thx for ur feedback on my blog!!

Jus read thro ur blog...soooooo true. Esp the lines "I reckon that there is always one special year or period in our lives that we keep going back to. And from then on, we would never age"...

We don even realise the fact that the music or the heroes that we have grown up with have become out-dated now!!!

Gr8 post! Keep them coming!!!

1:33 PM  
Blogger whimsical brainpan said...

Time is the one thing you spend that you can never earn more of.

2:14 PM  
Blogger Ab said...

sometime last year, i had prepared a list of things id like to do if i just had a little more time.... (after work, that is)believe me, i had to stop myself at around no. 50.

Now Iv got a much better job, and so i relish the time I have to attend to most of thise things

and btw, wat job do you do? that keeps u real time attentive?

3:40 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

hey guess what i wd too chose time bcos of time i don get time to add on my blog read
njoy movies anywats excellently fabricated as for u said i just read 2 books at time and just review them how i felt just like a movie

4:45 PM  
Blogger Jellyhead said...

You are so right, PB, about time whizzing by.

I am in my late thirties, staring down the barrel of 40. And although on one level I knew this would happen (providing I managed to avoid dying young!), in another weird way I never imagined getting old, BEING old. It's like when you're young, you think part of your very identity is being a young thing. And then finally, the wrinkles begin and you think GEEZ! This wasn't supposed to happen!

It's a bit of a blow to realise you are becoming old and crusty and that you've started wearing cardigans ;-)

Take comfort, you are still a spring chicken. And you will always, always be young when compared to me!

5:30 PM  
Blogger smilnsigh said...

A lot of us seem to be thinking on the general subject of time.... And how we choose to spend it.

Very good musings I feel. And not just because I did an entry on it myself, recently. :-)

Mari-Nanci

8:05 PM  
Blogger smilnsigh said...

"The nature of my work requires me to pay attention to day-to-day events in global economics and politics."

My college years where spent with Economics, so this sounds very interesting. But also... sad in a way. For me that is. I'm 70 and by now, I just want to do a lot of running away from such as global politics/economics.

But you are young. You can still handle it. :-)

Mari-Nanci

8:07 PM  
Blogger The Stormin Mormon said...

Hey, I've been battling this one due to an approaching birthday, and it's been driving me NUTS...

I know one day I will wake up and be thirty. Then another day will pass, and forty.

As a kid my parents always told me to appreciate my youth, and not rush to grow up. That the time would just keep getting faster and faster.

It has...

10:17 PM  
Blogger Webmiztris said...

my twenties were a blur too. they went so goddam fast! now I'm 31 and I can hardly believe it. I don't even REMEMBER 21. how pathetic is that?

11:56 PM  
Blogger audrey` said...

Hi Friend

Thank you so much for your prayers for my brother.
He's resting at home.

We're so touched by your kindness =)
God bless.

11:46 AM  
Blogger neal said...

Thanks for commenting on my blog. I checked out your post and only have one thing to add. Lyrics. This song describes much of what you were trying to say.


I turn my back to the wind
To catch my breath
Before I start off again.
Driven on without a moment to spend
To pass an evening with a drink and a friend

I let my skin get too thin
I'd like to pause
No matter what I pretend
Like some pilgrim
Who learns to transcend
Learns to live as if each step was the end

(Time stand still)
I'm not looking back
But I want to look around me now
(Time stand still)
See more of the people and the places that surround me now
Freeze this moment a little bit longer
Make each sensation a little bit stronger
Experience slips away
Experience slips away

I turn my face to the sun
Close my eyes
Let my defences down
All those wounds that I can't get unwound

I let my past go too fast
No time to pause
If I could slow it all down
Like some captain, whose ship runs aground
I can wait until the tide comes around

(Time stand still)
I'm not looking back
But I want to look around me now
(Time stand still)
See more of the people and the places that surround me now
Freeze this moment a little bit longer
Make each impression a little bit stronger
Freeze this motion a little bit longer
The innocence slips away
The innocence slips away...

Summer's going fast, nights growing colder
Children growing up, old friends growing older
Freeze this moment a little bit longer
Make each impression a little bit stronger
Experience slips away
Experience slips away...
The innocence slips away

12:01 PM  
Blogger Swetha said...

Well written ! Wish I could freeze time too.

1:28 PM  
Blogger fifi said...

wow princess, so many readers!!

3:47 PM  
Blogger Alex said...

Princess,

Different phases in life...we move on...at times, we know what happened[which we should if we were sober :P]...but the journey keeps going...what happens is the concept of time ceases to exist?

6:31 PM  
Blogger Lucid Darkness said...

What a lovely way of expressing yourself!

Yes, going through old music, journal entries, photographs... do that to you.

Beautiful!

6:37 PM  
Blogger thisisme said...

I am so with you about people not being allowed to cover songs until the original artist is dead - it is on the list of things to take over if I'm ever dictator!!

I know what you mean about time too - everything I do at work revolves around dates and numbers, so I watch them fly past as I sail around the world's media pages.

7:40 PM  
Blogger Lady Prism said...

Time...I wrestle with it..Sometimes I welcome it...At times I denounce...Ah' I guess I have come to the point of accepting it.

Thank you for taking the time to visit me in me' bloggy' home.

I enjoyed my time here as well! :>>

7:49 PM  
Blogger Sigma said...

I can identify so much with what you have said here. Time just flies away ... days, weeks, months, years ... they just drift by. And when you sit back and think how much time has actually passed since a particular incident, you get amazed.
It feels like very little time ago when I was in college. Living that carefree life. And today I am sitting here, shouldering many domestic and professional responsibilites, while thinking back fondly of yesterday that went by years ago.

12:41 AM  
Blogger Arcturus said...

If you could rev your hadronic quantum drive engine up to faster than light, as I understand it, you theoretically would go backwards in time. Then you could redo all that stuff from years gone by.

I love Simply Red.

You sure have a lot of readers.

6:28 AM  

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