NOS88

Ah, yes the reality of time speeding up. When I was a senior in high school a wrote a paper that earned me an "A+" and the respect of my teachers (more for creative imagination than scientific knowledge). In that paper I put forth the following proposition: Time, in fact, is moving faster, but our perceptions of it are based on when we are born. If we live in an expanding universe, then the longer it expands, the farther away from the center we are. Everyone knows that as something expands the points farther from the center are moving faster in the expansion process than those points in the center. And we all know that time is the measurement of movement. Therefore, time is moving faster each day. Those born today, can't experience time in the same way we do (based on our time of birth), because the universe has expanded beyond that point. Hence, they perceive the current speed as normal. However, as they age, they too will feel as if time is moving faster (which it is) while their younger earthly companions will not. That is, until they've lived enough years to have a frame of reference from which they can experience the acceleration of time. OK, I apologize for this post. It appears that I have way too much time on my hands.

DG: I too have days like this. They serve as a wake up call to get as much out of each day as possible. Like the French Painter Eugene Delacroix has said, "We work not only to produce, but to give meaning to time." On of my elder heros is the Impressionist Matisse who continued to produce art even when bed ridden in his latter years. He would have his assistants put pastels on long rods and he would reach out from his bed with these extended tools to continue drawing.

crtreedude 

Okay - I am probably certifiably insane if they could ever slow me down enough to check... but, for what it is worth.

1. I suspect you are focused on the life of your daughter, she has dreams, ambitions, and it appears, her whole life ahead of her. Got news for you, you have a lot of time left too most likely. What are you planning on doing with it all?

2. Get busy doing DIFFERENT things, time goes fast because you aren't doing anything today that is different from yesterday. Get involved with NEW stuff - if you are spending your time thinking about the 70s, it might be because you have this big gap called "raise children", I assume you are done with that. Now, get cracking on new stuff. Go save the planet or something.

I am currently involved in becoming fluent in Spanish, raising 10s of thousands of tropical trees, building 3 businesses, learning to not fall off horses, commuting on a bike on rock roads in a third world country, and having a great time - I can't even REMEMBER the 70s anymore, and compared to my current life, it was boring. Now I have resources, knowledge and usually more excitemant than I can stand.

just my dos colones

SesameCrunch

+1!
That's my philosophy as well!! Enjoy every moment now, 'cause the next 50 years are going to zoom by even faster.

BluesDawg

Hey guys. You think maybe we're overanalyzing just a little bit? You'd think the guy wrote a suicide note.

DnvrFox

This group? Overanalyze something? You must be kidding!

NOS88

Let me think about that for a bit.

Digital Gee

Thanks for the observation. You're right -- the group was overanalyzing just a bit. All I was doing in my post was "having a moment" of lamentation for the passage of time. It just seemed, in that moment, to have passed by so quickly.

Maybe it IS related to having two daughters tripping over the doorsteps of adulthood. One's just turned 18 and has plans to move away in a few months for school and the other is now 15, and no longer my little girl.

And maybe it's related to how my bike can take me "back there," if only for a little while, but it can't drop me off. When I ride I can sometimes get that glimpse of what life was like when I was just a little kid and my bike was a magic flying machine that extended my horizons and transported me in a way nothing before ever had. I love going back to that feeling of flying down the road. Trouble is, it's a time machine that brings me back to the present, as well, at the end of the ride.

Of course, that's a good thing. Except every once in a while, when I wax nostalgic, and get into the time tunnel groove, and want to stay where I've just been beamed. If only for a little while longer!

Ah, nostalgia -- it's not what it used to be!

Blackberry

Speaking for myself, I ready for one of Gary Diego's toga parties.

Terrierman

Time flies dude and there's naught to be done to stop it or slow it down. Not to say that I can't relate, for some odd reason driving home the other night in a pea soup fog I got to thinking about a great friend who died young. A melancholy moment for sure, happy memories of him and sad that we weren't able to see what we could see together. It seemed like yesterday that he was at my wedding and then he died two years later, and now suddenly as you note, it is not yesterday at all, it's 33 years since he was killed.

When you get that time tunnel thingie figured out, let me know, I'm up for a few trips to yesteryear myself.

crtreedude 

Gary,

Yeah, yeah, we know, you are ready to run out and buy a red sports car. Your kids flying the coop is the time for you to make plans man!

You are just in denial - the next thing will be some young chick, a hot car and I will be seeing you somewhere on a beach in Costa Rica...

crtreedude 

Oh, by the way, I would possibly have a moment too if I could ever slow down enough to have a spare one..

Gary Diego

The current schedule for Toga parties at my place in South Mission Beach in San Diego is as follows:

Monday 1/8/07:

11:00 AM (Ended)

2:45 PM

6:30 PM

9:45 PM

11:00 PM

(The winter season and windy weather account for the light schedule.)

Tom Bombadil

I once read a short story, from a famous author whose name I have forgotten, that submitted the premise that life goes through three stages: Slow Time, Normal Time, and Fast Time.

When one is young, time stretches out like forever. A summer off from schools seems to last for many months, almost as if school will never start again. This is the Slow Time phase of our lives.

Then when one gets a bit older, maybe in college, maybe a bit afterward, time seems to run normally. A month feels like a month. A week's vacation feels like a week's vacation. You can stay in this groove for a long time, as kids grow up and your progress in your career. Some can maintain it much longer than others.

But then at some point, you move into "Fast Time." When the days slip by so far that it startles you. Something that was a month away 3 days ago, is now tomorrow. It is now Autumn when just last month it was Spring.

I think one of the keys to life is controlling "Fast Time." Get active, get out and enjoy something every day. Stay on top of the date and season. Don't let the days / months / years slide past. Spend some time reflecting upon what you've done in the past month or two, in order to get a perspective that you did do a lot and that time didn't just whiz past.

With people living so much longer today, one needs to realize that when they pass 50, they likely have as much life to live as the entire time that was spent getting from 18 to being 50, and longer for many. Someone who is 52, such as I, could stop to think about what they hope to accomplish in the next 5 years, then the next 5 after that, then 5 more, 5 more, 5 more, 5 more, etc. Heck, that's potential for a LOT of toga parties with Gary Diego.

Gary Diego

My philosophy exactly.

In fact, the last time I rapped with Sinatra, he said, "Gary, if you can dream it, you can live it. Life's about toga parties..."

And that was coming from Frank Junior. Image what Frank Senior wouldda said!

SaiKaiTai

"Enjoy every sandwich"