I suppose it should come as no surprise that it is easier to complain than it is to observe things going well. This, then, may be an exception. Monica and I recently rented a house in Pacific Grove for a week and invited our family to come join us for celebration. I wrote the following reflections to share at a dinner hosted by my Sister, Wandzia, her husband, Marvin, and their daughter Kasia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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I want to share with you some thoughts that have been bouncing around in my head recently. Monica and I have been anticipating our birthdays this year. They seem special this year, somehow; Monica has turned 70 this month, and I will turn 75 the month following. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thinking about time made me brush up and update information I originally acquired from my high school physics and college philosophy classes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One startling fact remains unchanged: time\u2014as ubiquitous and ever-present as it is in our every-day lives\u2014plays no role in our scientific understanding of the cosmos.\u00a0\u00a0Apart from being a simple measure of change (a kind of tape measure), science doesn’t need “time” to explain how the universe was created nor what forces make it function. That seems incredible to me, yet it is true.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The official definition of time by the American Physics Association is
\u201cTime is what the clock says.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, we experience time and can study it in various ways. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
500 A.D. \u2014 Boethius famously postulated that human time is different from God\u2019s time. Boethius asserted that the two times could co-exist, perhaps prefiguring contemporary string theory by several centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1927 \u2014 Science has defined what we all know to be true: that time has a direction<\/em>. Scientists call that quality \u201cthe Arrow of Time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1950 \u2014 Einstein\u2014writing about human time in this universe (as separate from \u201cGod\u2019s time\u201d)\u2014stipulated that no matter where in our universe we might be, sitting here in Carmel Valley or, hypothetically, sitting on the edge of a black hole in an unimaginably distant far-off galaxy, we must experience the passage of time the same way, one second after another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We also speak of the \u201cend of time\u201d and consider that a marker of considerable importance. The end of time is a point at which the universe, as we know it, ceases to exist. But we also imagine that something continues to exist after the \u201cend of time\u201d; just that our experience in this world ceases. If we can’t go backwards, we might try to \u201cgo with the flow\u201d in the direction of the Arrow of Time: forward. Here, though, we are stymied again. We believe we can anticipate what lies ahead, but our anticipation is seriously constrained by our inability to comprehend the complexity of what influences events in the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I may think, \u201cI\u2019ll make a breakfast omelette for Monica tomorrow.\u201d Any number of circumstances can and do force us to adjust our plans. It happens so constantly and reliably that we don’t even notice that we can’t foretell future events save in grossly generalized ways. Spiritually-wise person\u2019s have described this understanding as \u201cliving in the present\u201d or \u201cliving mindfully\u201d. To live mindfully means to be increasingly conscious, every second, of the extraordinary dynamism and complexity that occurs in the sliver of time in which we presently exist\u2026 of you being here to celebrate with Monica and me; of my being present at this second with my children and grandchildren; of each of us experiencing at this moment the joy of family and friends, and\u2014on this day, most of all\u2014of my awareness that I share my sliver with Monica, and can experience how much satisfaction, companionship and pleasure she brings to my life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a plaque in this home, just in the other room. It contains a quotation from Carl Jung and reads, \u201cBidden or not bidden, God is present.\u201d Aware of existing in our ever-fleeting sliver of time, I\u2019d like to call to mind that bidden or unbidden presence of God in our midst. Indeed, the table was set with consummate attention to beauty and celebration. Our conversations were lively. The laughter was hearty and heartfelt. Our food and wine nourishing as well as tasty. Our gratitude was palpable.
We each experience time subjectively.\u00a0\u00a0To better illumine our personal experience of time might require the expertise of psychologist or a brain specialists dealing with memory, among other disciplines; also of philosophers and theologians.\u00a0\u00a0Time, though it may not be needed in mathematical formulae is complex in its own right and can only be understood through the insights of many experts from differing approaches.\u00a0
Practically speaking, what our subjective experience reveals to us as laypersons is that time seems to be composed of fleeting \u201cslivers of being\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0We can retain past events in our minds and recall those memories, but we can’t go back in any practical sense to re-live previously \u201ccompleted\u201d events.\u00a0\u00a0The slivers stack up in our memories like cards fill an old-fashioned library card catalog.\u00a0\u00a0The Arrow of Time doesn’t permit going back to experience them over; only to recognize that events happened in some time past.
One CalTech astrophysicist, Sean Carroll* described it this way, \u201cI can make an omelette out of an egg, but I can’t go back and make an egg out of an omelette.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0In using these words he added an important complication to our rumination on time.\u00a0\u00a0The inability to \u201cgo back\u201d is not merely an issue of\u00a0memory<\/em>, it has\u00a0physical<\/em>\u00a0implications, as well!
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– But as the time approaches, I might find I\u2019ve overslept.
– I may find the last of the eggs were used the evening before.
– Overnight, an earthquake might have hit and we\u2019ll have forgotten all about breakfast.
– The doorbell might ring and when we open it the Publisher\u2019s Clearing House representatives might have arrived with the first installment of our randomly-awarded \u201cone-million-dollars-a-week-for-our lifetime\u201d\u2026 and we’ll go out for breakfast.
– Monica might awaken and say, \u201cLet’s pack a picnic and have breakfast at the beach.\u201d
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What we can conclude is that, as far as time is concerned, our human existence is embedded in the sliver of time (one 3×5 card thick) that is \u201cnow\u201d, not \u201cbefore\u201d, and not \u201cto come.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We bid ourselves to be conscious of that constant presence in order to give thanks\u2026 serious and deliberate gratitude for the countless and undeserved blessings that flow\u2014especially to each of us\u2014as we gather tonight, in Wandzia and Marvin\u2019s warm and welcoming home and anticipate the meal and conversation they set before us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The question that remains for each of us is:
\u201cHow best do I express my gratitude in the sliver of time in which I exist.\u201d
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