Today's column by Nancy Wood about being retired in The Villages
 

She said: "First of all, they speed up your clocks and calendars when you get here to The Villages. There seem to be less hours in each day, fewer days in a week and the years absolutely fly by.....What could be more healthy?" In other words, she has nothing but praise for The Villages active lifestyle.

My thoughts: This sets up a paradoxical situation, in my opinion. If you stay active and have fun, you will likely live a little longer. But if being active and having fun leads you to perceive time as "flying by", you will, in effect, experience a shorter life.

The passing of calendar years and your perception of "time passing" doesn't always match up. Some day you will be 70, 80, or 90 and you will wonder: "Where did the time go?" You won't know because you were too busy keeping busy and having fun. That means "keeping busy and having fun" comes at a price.

If you're all booked up with appointments everyday and rushing from one event to another, you will obliterate time and it will be as though your life didn't exist. The bottom line: An active lifestyle erases time.

Is living an active lifestyle as great as it's advertised to be? Is it worth the trade-off?

:)

What???

Don't worry, overthinking slows time back down. After all, time was invented so we wouldn't have to do everything at once.

:agree:

??
 

Ditto!

:1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl:

That took some thinking! Who was the inventor of time? Does anyone hold a patent on it?

Actually, I enjoyed composing the opening post and time just flew by. So this thread cost me dearly, in terms of lost perception of time.

I'm guessing you would have had the same reaction if you had read Nancy Wood's column.

She said: "....they speed up your clocks and calendars when you get here to the Villages. There seem to be less hours in each day, fewer days in a week and the years absolutely fly by."

What????

I belong to a group that studies time travel. If you want to join us, we have decided to hold our next meeting in 1969 at Woodstock.

We could go back to a time when you were just an egg and make an omelet.

I was not an egg. I was the best swimmer.

Ew.

So your father was a rooster? ;) (What a silly question.)

Guess this comes down to what type of lifestyle suits you better. Some folks that need that active lifestyle might wither away if not available. Others that prefer nature and solitude may experience a slower life that suits them better. I don't think it's a matter of "time flying" and shortening your life 'cause you still have the same hours everyday that everyone else does. What matter is if you are spending them to make yourself happy - not to make time go faster or slower.

It means no boredom (unless you choose it). On a boring job, for instance as a store cashier when nobody's coming in, the clock seems to stand still. When you're having fun, the time flies by quickly.

I think having fun most of the time ADDS time to your life because you're likely to have a more vital and brighter outlook on everything. A vital, youthful outlook on life is good for mental and physical health.