So here’s a funny situation about being human: when we’re kids, we want time to go faster, so we can be older! We can’t wait to be allowed to do older kid or grownup things. For me, I couldn’t wait to get to access to the non-children’s side of the public library because the books in the kids’ library were boring (although I did find books of easy science experiments and had my first introduction to Greek mythology there).
Then I couldn’t wait to drive (something I hear is more rare these days) and have my first legal drink—the latter resulting in drunken vomiting and a readjustment of perspective about alcohol.
Later, when we hit middle age, we want things to slow down so we can delay the inevitable procession towards death. That feeling of mortality often sparks at 25 and then gets much worse in our late 40s. This is why the car and beauty industries do so well with the over-45 crowd.
And then we get to a point, and I am making a generalization here using my own experience: you find that you just want to get through certain things. You want to be able to selectively fast-forward through tasks or periods of your life. You don’t want everything to go fast; but there are days when you are making a salad, and it’s three-quarters done, and you just don’t feel like chopping any more vegetables. Or you are working around in the garden, taking off those dead leaves and branches from the tomato plants, and that takes forever. It’s a worthy investment in time, because it makes the tomatoes easier to pick, but it’s just so time-consuming…hitting that FF button would be great. And then I’m out for a walk, and it feels good for the first mile, even the second mile is OK. But you get to a point and it would be nice to just fast forward, run home at a rapid clip, and be done, to sit and to rest and to cook and marinate in your own sweat. But part of the point is that you have to get through the entire walk for fitness. You have to finish the garden, and the salad.
So I guess we’re just going to have to deal with the way time marches methodically on.
MUSOFYR 