Fifty years ago the obscure Canadian folk duet Fraser and DeBolt sang
The Queen was in her corner
Combing out her hair.
She asked me where the time goes.
I said, “Look Queen! It goes over there?”
And Sandy Denny and Fairport Convention sang “Who Knows Where the Time Goes?”
But they were all young, so what did they know? And now many of them are dead.
Remember Robert Crumb’s “Mr. Natural” comic books? Old man with a long white beard.
“What’s it all mean, Mr. Natural?”
“Don’t mean ————!”
Or the person fifty years ago, asked about time and why time flies, said this about current events:
“It doesn’t mean ———— to a tree!”
In William Faulkner’s great story “A Rose for Emily,” Miss Emily’s memory of her eminent ancestors and those she has loved has them all sort of gathered together in one big field at the same time, irrespective of when they really lived. In my mind, my ancestors from 800 years ago died just a generation or two before I was born. They are all here with me.
I’m so happy to have my memories and so sad that there are so few who share them with me. I talk with my 91 year old father on the phone about things that happened in the fifties and sixties that I remember clearly (though often wrong) and that my siblings remember little to not at all. When he goes, I will be the last one to know or care. Christmas of 1960 was the last one with my aunt and uncle and cousins there before they got a divorce and moved away. That was the last REAL Christmas. I got an Erector Set for Christmas. That Christmas happened mostly in black and white, because most of the photos are in black and white. Dad drove a Rambler station wagon.
I’ve forgotten more about my family’s history than most of my family members have ever known.
You are right about it going faster and faster. I have two clocks that tell me the day of the week and the date as well as the time. I recommend that you all get one. It helps.
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Originally Posted by DeanFL
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Looked at our online calendar... WHAT??? it will be AUGUST in a few days? Seemed as if it just turned - July. It feels as if the time flew, esp since March/COVID. I googled "aging and time flies" - got this>
Why Does Time Fly As We Age?
The older we get, the faster time seems to fly by. How often do you wonder where the time has gone? Is it your birthday again so soon? Well, one week has 10080 minutes in it no matter how fast it may seem to pass but there are scientific reasons for why our perception of time changes as we age.
As far back as 1890, Psychologist William James wrote that time seems to speed up because we measure ‘firsts’ as in first day of school, first kiss, first job and so on however as we age and gain experience, there are far fewer ‘firsts’ of anything. Others who have studied this perception have come to the similar conclusion that as our days become more routine time flattens out and, without events to highlight time, we believe it is passing more quickly.
A more obvious observation is that for a child who is five, one year is 20% of their life and their memory doesn’t extend across all five of those years while for a 50 year old, one year is a mere 2% of their life and as we age many of us will forget more than we remember about the minutiae of our life experiences. Those who have retired may view one day as melting into the next without the routines of work to separate one day from another at the very least.
Young children looking forward to an event such as a birthday or Christmas are counting the days until that all important event. Adults, on the other hand, are preparing for events with lists, shopping, cooking and invitations mixed in with work, stress, family obligations, getting the bills paid and making sure everyone gets to their classes and activities on time. For the child, the days leading up to that one event may go by ever so slowly while the parent may complain about the day not having nearly enough hours.
What’s the solution? Studies have shown that when we look back on a weekend filled with activities we feel that the hours have stretched and time has gone more slowly. It seems logical, then, that the more firsts and experiences we can include in our lives, the slower time will seem to pass. Routine is necessarily a part of our adult lives but make sure to make plans to break those routines and experience new things. It doesn’t have to be as expensive as an impulsive trip to some exotic location although that would certainly qualify! A walk through a new art gallery, a meal at a new restaurant or a new exercise routine will provide time markers just as surely as a weekend getaway to that B&B you’ve been wanting to try or bungee jumping from the Stratosphere Tower in Las Vegas. Give yourself the gift of a new experience and slow time down just a little bit.
...makes sense now.
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