The flow of time
First off, there’s nothing. The Universe as we know it now, is nothing. Black. The invading lack of light, sound, matter and energy surrounds the emptiness of what we have yet to scientifically discover. Then, caused by some mysterious forces, comes the Big Bang, not to confuse with the Big Ben (I would make such mistake when first learning English), which was built relatively recently, in 1859, standing tall at 96 meters above ground. The explosion caused by the Big Bang is what created everything we know to exist today. The bread you eat in the morning with the warm melted butter on top, the car keys you keep forgetting inside your winter coat, your lover’s hands that you hold tightly before falling asleep at night. Everything you own, see, smell, feel, touch and sense originally came from what we believe was a minuscule center of incredibly dense packed matter, which also is what we wish our bags of chips contained, instead of tasteless air.
So the whole history of the Universe goes by, which, for as interesting and long as it is, if I were to tell it to you second by second, I would probably end up skipping dinner tonight, my classes tomorrow, and probably all of the rest of my existence. So jumping slightly ahead, we’re now born. We come out of our mother’s womb knowing little to nothing, unable to survive on our own, dependent on others. Then as we grow up we learn new things; how to walk on two legs, how to say our first words, how to eat by ourselves, how to go to the washroom without having to use our diapers, how to make new friends, how to listen and pay attention in class, how to read a sentence without taking all the time in the world, how to play sports, how to write tests, how to tell someone we have feelings for them, how to manage alcohol after we throw up once or twice, or more, how to manage the respective hangover, how to fail and recover, make mistakes and learn from them, how to enjoy the little moments in our lives. I would continue, explaining how to find a job, get married, have kids, become grandparents and all of that grown up stuff, but lacking the experience, I will stay on the grounds I am most familiar with.
So, going back to what I wanted to write about, we now find ourselves in this world that is so complex and hard to understand that it might happen every so often that things don’t turn out the way we expect them to. It is only normal after all, a perfect life is nothing but a dream. An abstract concept, like Plato’s Hyperuranion, a world described by him as one above ours, home of all the ideas of things. In our world we then only have instances of those things, for example a sphere, a horse or a bunk bed. The Hyperuranion would instead contain the idea of the objects, their perfect representation, abstract and untouchable, timeless. So that when the architect goes to draw a sphere on a sheet of paper, he can use the concept of a Sphere, from the elevated dimension, to present a final product as close to the idea as possible.
Such is the matter of life. We often set goals for ourselves, which, don’t get me wrong, is great and indispensable for nearly everyone to reach a, so called, successful life. The problem lies with the expectations that we set on ourselves, like a pile of books resting on our shoulders, making us feel smart for the knowledge we carry, and yet adding weight to every step we take. What is the point of the analogy then? Given that we’re not perfect, merely human, we do occasionally, or often, fail to reach our objectives. Some books will fall off, some we will pick back up, some we will not, and that is okay.
Time, a fascinating concept. Admired by the brightest scientists, feared by the oldest living, is extraordinary. It has the power to heal, restore order. Ever heard the saying “give time to time”? It might seem a little confusing at first, but in its simplicity lies its core message. That is, to heal, we need to be patient. We need to let nature follow its natural course, let go of our torments, give in to the acceptance of time flowing by. When we are let down by a friend’s action that we end up feeling betrayed, when we miss our loved ones to the point that they’re all we can think of, when it’s dark and cold outside and we miss home, when we come to the point where we think that we have lost everything and we don’t think things are ever going to get better. In these moments we feel lost, hopeless at times. I know I have been. I, who have always told myself and others around me that I was ready to move out as soon as I had to, missed my home like I never missed anything before in my life. I missed coming home to the smell of the food cooking in the kitchen, I missed seeing my brothers every day and asking them how school went, I missed the sight of the sky from my room as the sun set, slowly, to give me space to see the colors change by the horizon. For the longest time away for my family I felt like I was in a hostile environment, waiting irresistibly to go back home. Yet, I put faith in time, and, surely enough, shortly after, misery turned into nostalgia, and believe me, nostalgia is nothing but a pleasant reminiscing of the “good old times”.
Looking back in time again, since the unstoppable clock of the Universe started ticking with new and new stars, time has been, and will be, a part of every single event that has, and will have, ever happened. It’s rooted within the physical laws of how nature works, embedded in our own lives and daily actions. We have had many accomplishments throughout our life, we have a lifetime worth of experiences to represent who we are, and a mind full of thoughts to represent who we will be. And our future is bright, as bright as we want it to be, and if we want it so, even brighter than the brightest star in the Universe. So next time you feel like times aren’t going too well, look outside your window, at the sky, at the stars, upwards, and let time go by, allow yourself to get your thoughts back in place and your mind to rest. The flow of time is the only thing that didn’t change since the very beginning, thanks to which we are all here today. Now hurry, the clock is ticking!
