Pages

Sunday 8 May 2011

TEMPUS FUGIT

Listening to NIcholas Owen on the News Programme today I heard him say "if you are watching with me, the time is..."., and I couldn't help wondering what the time would be if we were not watching with him.
Just as the Breakfast show is prone to comment "the time with us is". 

Does the media then operate on a different timescale from the rest of the world?

I know it is a different time here in the UK from for instance, the time in New Zealand, America or Japan but the concept of individual TV programmes having their own time-zones is a bit scary.

Time is we know, infinitely flexible.  There is lunch-time, tea time etc.   Then there is the "sorry, it's past my bed-time" way of getting rid of unwanted visitors.

There was of course, the famous "come up and see me some time" invitation, and there  is the "phone me and we must meet sometime".

Listening, as I was just this morning, to a good sermon, the time passed fairly fast just as a bad one can make time interminable.

Then there is the way of putting off something we don't want to do "I haven't got time now, but I'll get round to it when I have more time".

There are times of great unhappiness when the time seems endless, and fleeting moments of pure joy which go so fast they seem to have taken no time at all.

Reminiscing, we think back fondly of days, weeks, months when life was everything we could ask and the time flew, others when it dragged endlessly.

Waiting for something, someone, a letter, a phone-call can stretch time almost out of sight, but seeing a loved one off on a trip somewhere the precious hours fly.

Trying to put all the clocks in the house right when British Summertime begins can take an eternity as you wait for the pips on the 'talking clock' on the phone so you can be precise to the second.

Sometimes now, when I seldom have a schedule to keep to, and very few deadlines to meet it seems as though time is altogether too elastic and I long for the days when time was short.

It is difficult to believe that however varied our timescales appear, there are actually only 24 hours in each and every day.

6 comments:

  1. You are so right. Before I had a child time was never an issue. Now, I do far more in 17 hours than I did in 7 hours before. Time is subjective and relative.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lovely post, Ray, and definite food for thought when I have time.... :-) I've been racing round cleaning and packing today and there just haven't been enough hours in the day.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jane and Perpetua

    Thought I'd just save a bit of time by replying to both in one sentance. Thanks for the comments. Now, what do I do with all the time I've saved?

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have some ironing.....???

    ReplyDelete
  5. brilliant post Ray - today, so far, I've had time on my hands, time to kill and well as time going too quickly!!

    I am reminded of this..
    Time is too slow for those who wait,
    Too swift for those who fear,
    Too long for those who grieve,
    Too short for those who rejoice,
    But for those who love, time is
    Eternity.

    Henry van Dyke (1852-1933)
    Read by Lady Jane Fellowes at Princess Diana's funeral.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Tootallburd
    Ironing, what's that?

    Judy
    I trust you didn't act on the "time to kill"!
    I love the verse, never heard it before.

    ReplyDelete