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.

I agree to totally disagree respectfully, with your point of view!!!!!

Time is an elusive concept. I have found that being busy is healthy for you if you do not too much!!! What's the alternative, stay home, relax and be bored????

It's like the joke of the older person that says, they can't go back to school and take the five years to get a dipolma, as they will be 55!!!

The other person says, in five years, your going to be 55 anyway!!!

Life is for the living. Not doing what you enjoy after working all those years, is insane. IMHO

My mother lived to 93 and her later were punctuated with comments like, "time really goes fast" and she nothing, all day. IMHO When you see the end coming, your time gets more precious to you and the time appears to go even faster.

I'm sure you'll pick my wording apart, as you ususally post contentious articles, and wait for people to bite, into this nonsensical concept when they don't agree with you. :smiley:

I would like to join this.
I have a lot of mistakes that I would like to correct.

One of the best things about all of the lifestyle choices in The Villages, which keep us so busy, is that you get to choose which, if any, you want to do. It's all about individual choice as to how you wile away your time. I choose to do something, until I get bored with it, and then I choose something else. Also remember, doing nothing is also a choice that I make occasionally.

Life is good for me here. There is a lot of fun and then the big paper comes again. I think life passing fast, having a good time, is far better than having lonely creeping years full of dullness and of just waiting. Thinking. Worrying whether life is passing too quickly and knowing it will end.

It is too late now to solve all the worlds problems, we may as well add to them.

AND DEAR LOVING GOD, please keep people without a sense of humor far away from me.

Would I have to raise my kids all over again?

LOl....no....;). Time always passes at a set rate, it's our perception that makes it seem faster or slower.

Enjoy your weekend PL....;)

When I was a small child, I actually thought OP was correct. I didn't like school, so I tried to do as little as possible on Sundays so the day would drag on. One soon learns how much better it is to participate in life. Monday always comes anyway, so you may as well enjoy Sunday to its fullest.

You could just sit in a chair and time would be perceived to move more slowly, but that, to me, is not living. If time flies by while I am enjoying life, so be it. At least I'll go out smiling. :)

Time is only a concept of the human mind. If bad things are happening , time is slow. If good things are happening, time is fast. I prefer fast. You might like to read Deepak Chopra's Timeless Mind, Ageless Body.

Yes. Because seeing the days, weeks and years fly by when you are happy, involved and having fun is better than watching the seconds, minutes and hours of your life slowly click away when you are are not.

It's like being a child in school, or working at a job you don't like. The weekdays drag on, but the weekends fly by. Would you give up the weekends to make life (seem to) go slower?

Great book
 

"Timeless Mind, Ageless Body" :
Great book, as are all of Deepak Chopra's writings..........

I would like to correct a misconception that many seem to have. In my opening statement above, I didn't take a position one way or the other. I simply stated some facts and possible lifestyle outcomes. Then I ended my statement with 2 questions so as to get your opinion.

It's a fact that your perception of "time passing" can be speeded up or slowed down. That's why Einstein said: If you're sitting on a bench waiting for a bus, time goes very slow. But if you're sitting on a bench with a pretty girl, time goes fast.

I guess that was his way of saying: Time is relative.

As for me, what do I believe? I don't worry about it, I just live my life. Sometimes I'm busy having fun, like I am now, and sometimes I like some quiet time to recharge my batteries.

Well, time does seem to drag and go slow when I am with most of my relatives.

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


YES to both, but I still wish you would buy a Television, kiddo.

Wonderful post, and I share your sentiments. :)

LOL, thanks, I needed a good laugh. I'm not suffering without a TV, I watch a different movie (DVD) almost every night. I may be hooked on watching movies but at least they are free! Since I got my DVD player, I must have seen at least 1,200 to 1,500 free movies.

The problem I have found with having a TV is that it eventually takes over my life. At least a movie only lasts a set amount of time and then it's over. TV starts with the 6:00 news and keeps going through the late night shows. A TV would turn me into a couch potato and/or a hypnotized zombie.

I'm proof that it's possible to adapt to life without TV.

Watch really bad boring movies. You will live longer.