Have you ever seen time-lapse videos? In these videos the scenery seems somewhat still and yet it isn’t. You can observe major or minor changes happening at a scene that seems to have no action and no movement at all. It represents the effect of time at all its glory.
So what is time?
From an objective perspective, time does not exist. There is no clock ticking at a strange planet and determines how fast or slow things can evolve. What we see is an effect. An effect of something to something else. Some effects may take longer than others. Some effects may be extremely fast. No human would be ever able to perceive the formation of a mountain. But they can perceive the sun rise and fall each day. They can observe a plant growing in a pot. They can observe their own selves changing.
From a subjective perspective, times means narrative. A continuous story that people form about themselves and involves images, senses, feelings and thoughts that change constantly but not in a chaotic way. There is some kind of reason and direction behind the formation of our thoughts and images about ourselves. I somewhat remember myself as a kid and how my body changed, I remember how I felt as a teen, and I can understand how my thought process and perception about myself has evolved over the years.
So there is the objective observation and the subjective perception of time. Does our perception matter at all? Can our own perception of who we are as continuous living beings can have any effect on the objective effect of time? Or are we completely surrendered to the flow of time?
We cannot choose if a mountain will form or not. We cannot choose if we grow old or not. We cannot choose if the sun will come up in a given day. There are so many things in life that are out of our control. But we have a choice on our own narrative. We have the choice of perspective and direction. We have the choice of how we will perceive ourselves and others and how we will tell our story. At any given moment, we have the choice of how we will read this narrative. It’s like an open-ended story with multiple choice at each chapter. The story will evolve no matter what happens in the protagonists. However, the choices they will make during the exploration of the storyline will much determine significant variables of the next scenes.
No matter what, the main character of the story is ours to evolve.
Days of Wonder 